THE WORK OF HITO STEYERL
Castello di Rivoli launches a symposium on Artificial Intelligence with the participation of theorists, privacy and data management experts, consultants in the field of architecture and security development systems, chosen with artist Hito Steyerl. Titled The City of Broken Windows, Hito Steyerl’s new sound and video-based multimedia installation presented in the Manica Lunga at Castello di Rivoli, drafted by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Marianna Vecellio, stems from her research into Artificial Intelligence industry practices and surveillance technologies. Through this work, Steyerl explores how AI affects our urban environment and how alternative practices may emerge through pictorial acts in the public space. The City of Broken Windows revolves around altered sounds resembling atonal and discordant symphonies. These recordings document how robots (artificial intelligence) are taught to recognize the sound of breaking windows, a reference to both the industry and technology of surveillance. In this context, the symposium aims to critically explore the philosophical, economic and political consequences of the development of the digital system globally and it looks at the technologies which collect, manage and interpret data, allowing for the development of the artificial intelligence industry. Privacy, new forms of surveillance, the ontological question of who and what are human beings in the age of artificial intelligence, and the recognition of an ‘age of liquid crystals’, are some of the issues that will be addressed.