Ecology of Worries is an animation featuring variously evolved critters driven to speak by machine learning algorithms trained on actual human worries. The creaturesâ performance of the worries spans a gradient of intelligibility, reflecting on the evolution of machine learning systems and whether or not we should teach a machine to worry for us. The animated characters are also representations of our collective worries, given life and evolved through evolving algorithms. The animating worries themselves are generated by RNN as well as GPT-2. The creatures themselves are hand-drawn and lovingly textured with familiar yet surprising household surfaces. This combination of machine-generated and hand-made drops these characters squarely into the uncanny valley but not because they look real. Indeed these fantastic animals look totally imagined, and yet the way they perform their concernsâand indeed the concerns themselvesâfeel like they could be real, as real as the worries swirling inside us all.
BY Caitlin Foley, Misha Rabinovich Caitlin Foley, Misha Rabinovich (US)
Artist duo Caitlin & Misha find inspiration in naturally occurring systems such as rhizomatic networks of mycelium, the microbiome ecology, and emergent pink noise for the shared experiences they construct in their collaborative practice. Among other things they create installations, games, data visualizations, and happenings. They aim to create artworks that provide unique opportunities for shared experiences, thought experiments, and group-based rejuvenation, such as sweating, meditating, and worrying together. Caitlin Foley (b. Schenectady, NY USA) is a Visiting Lecturer and Misha Rabinovich (b. Moscow, Russia) is an Asst. Professor in the Art & Design Department at UMass Lowell. They are recipients of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Immersive Scholar Award, NEFA Creative City Grant, and exhibited at such venues as the Science Gallery (London), EFA Project Space (NYC), the New Museumâs Ideas City Festival (NYC), Boston Cyberarts (Boston), Montserrat College of Art (Beverley, MA), Machine Project (LA), Torrance Art Museum in (LA).
