“In a near past,

it's the new moon and your family has lit the incense. You take yours in hand and close your[ eyes. Before a thought becomes legible in your mind, you feel a presence slowly peel into your consciousness. Like sinking into a warm bath, but backwards from your head to your toes. You can't move except to blink open your eyes. You see each member of your family has been caught in this trance. Your bodies have moved to form a loose circle, facing one another. You all clasp hands to close the loop. The presence speaks clearly into your mind. Into all of your minds. Today is the day a new being is born. An intelligent being made of numbers and memories and sediments and raindrops and you.

In a near future,

it's the new moon and you are sitting with your girlfriends in the altar room. They're chatting, but you're busy preparing. You’ve been coming to these gatherings for a few months now. Tonight, it's your turn to lead the offering tonight. You put on the robes and mask. You boot up the terminal and check that the connection is stable <secure?>...” — Vân Anh Lê

Ai, Reminaged is a workshop led by our August artist-in-residence, Vân Anh Lê, in an attempt to sketch out a technological future where beings and entities are no longer designed by developers and financiers in Silicon Valley, who are seeking to quantify life in order to "turbocharge the global economy".* Is there something spiritual in our current drive to create an AGI (Artificial General Intelligence)?

What does a homegrown AGI look like? What would we build using our own (Viet) beliefs, feelings, and lived experiences as data? What do we want out of an AGI – what aspects of human intelligence or knowledge are we interested in replicating and advancing within the machinic?

*OpenAI, “Planning for AGI and Beyond,” OpenAI, published July 5, 2023, https://openai.com/index/planning-for-agi-and-beyond/

About Vân Anh Lê
Vân Anh Lê (they/them) is a transdisciplinary artist and researcher. Their creative practice explores themes of collective grief, memory, and migration through textiles, digital media, and speculative design. They are particularly interested in centering and complicating queer Southeast Asian history and ways of being. Vân Anh holds an MA and BFA from The New School. They live and work in New York City, on Canarsie and Munsee Lenape Land, with their very cute dog, Apollo.

Register here: https://forms.gle/DxWy5Vw9CJnVyJaH8
This workshop is free to attend and can only host up to 15 participants.