Our Art History’s Future? AI and Art
This panel brings together artists, a curator, and tech-focused venture capitalist to consider the future of our art history, as it is shaping, and shaped by, artificial intelligence. Diving into the varied considerations around the unfolding relationships between art and rapidly advancing machine learning tools, our speakers will offer diverse perspectives on how this rapidly shifting landscape will evolve.
Speakers
Kathleen Ditzig – Curator, National Gallery Singapore
Jake Elwes – Artist, London
Ho Rui An – Artist, Singapore
Deeps de Silva – Founder, Samadhi Ventures, Singapore
Moderated by:
Clara Che Wei Peh – Independent Curator, Singapore
Kathleen Ditzig – Curator, National Gallery Singapore
Kathleen Ditzig is a Singaporean art historian and curator. She has written about global histories of culture, finance and geopolitics through the lens of Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary art. She received a PhD from Nanyang Technological University in 2023 with a dissertation titled,“Exhibiting Southeast Asia in the Cultural Cold War: Geopolitics of Regional Art Exhibitions (1940s-1980s)”. She obtained a MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College in 2015. As a curator at National Gallery Singapore, she researches art histories of technology from a Southeast Asian perspective and works on projects related to advanced technologies.
Jake Elwes – Artist, London
Jake Elwes is an artist living in London currently working to queer artificial intelligence with drag performers. Having been making art exploring the aesthetics and ethics of machine learning systems since the very first generative AI models in 2016, their art searches for poetry and narrative in the successes and failures of digital systems. Across projects that encompass moving-image installation, sound and performance, Jake’s work finds unusual ways of demystifying, mapping and subverting technology. Works include deepfake drag in The Zizi Project, glitching oppressive algorithms in Machine Learning Porn and reframing AI generated marsh birds back into nature in CUSP. Jake’s work also calls for us to challenge who is building these systems and who (or what) they’re building them for, and whether we as artists and queers can reclaim these technologies to build our own digital utopias.
Jake studied at The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (2013-17) and their work has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Somerset House, London; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Today Art Museum, Beijing; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Honor Fraser Gallery, LA; Fundacion Telefonica Museum, Madrid; Ars Electronica, Austria; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Sculpture in the City, London; Science Gallery Dublin; RMIT Gallery, Melbourne; Onassis Foundation, Athens; E-WERK Freiburg, Germany; Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin; Nature Morte, Delhi; Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Cambridge and they have been featured on ZDF aspekte, ARD ttt (DE), BBC Radio 4 Front Row, and BBC1’s Kill Your TV – History of Video Art (UK).
Ho Rui An – Artist, Singapore
Ho Rui An is an artist and writer working in the intersections of contemporary art, cinema, performance, and theory. He has presented projects at the Shanghai Biennale; Bangkok Art Biennale; Gwangju Biennale; Jakarta Biennale; Kochi-Muziris Biennale; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Kunsthalle Wien; Singapore Art Museum; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan.
Deeps de Silva – Founder, Samadhi Ventures, Singapore
Deeps is a seasoned technology professional with a career spanning roles at Meta, Dropbox, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Deeps is now focused on helping companies grow through his ventures company, Samadhi Ventures. He supports his portfolio companies on their innovation thinking, growth and business strategies. He is deeply involved in the web3 and generative AI space, working with startups and enterprises across Asia who are solving real-world problems.
Additionally, he serves as an advisor to one of Asia’s top VC firm’s, AC Ventures, and is an advisor to a web3 fund, Artichoke Capital. In addition to working with funds, he works very closely with family offices based in Asia on their technology investment strategies. Deeps is also connected to various enterprise innovation hubs where he works closely with them on aligning startups with their innovation priorities.
Clara Che Wei Peh – Independent Curator, Singapore
Clara Che Wei Peh is an independent curator and arts writer in Singapore. Her practice centres around emerging technologies and experimental practices. Her recent curatorial projects include: “The Unstable Image”, DECK, Singapore; “Notes From the Ether”, ArtScience Museum, Singapore, and Art Dubai Digital, United Arab Emirates (all 2023). She has written about art and technology for platforms such as The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, Art and Market, among others. Clara was previously Art Lead and Curator at Appetite and an Adjunct Lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts. She holds a BA in Economies from Yale-NUS College and MA in History of Art from Courtauld Institute of Art. Clara is currently Asia Collection Fellow at KADIST.