“Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition

27 November 2024. Published by Benoît Labourdette.
  9 min
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Facilitated a multimedia workshop to help a group of students take an in-depth look at the challenges of Artificial Intelligence through their own expressions, images, voice, sound, AI tools, immersive techniques... with the aim of creating an exhibition on the theme of AI. In cooperation with Romain Baujard.

Workshop led by Benoît Labourdette for students in the 2024/2025 class of Master 2 Audiovisual and Digital Media at Université Grenoble Alpes, co-directed by Laurie Schmitt and Jean-Baptiste Fribourg.

Pedagogical principle

My pedagogical principle is that I will take the students through strong, personal, individual and autonomous experiences, from which they will be able to elaborate their thoughts.

When they arrive in the room, there are a large number of books spread out on a very large table. They are invited to peruse them as they wish. In this way, everyone can explore the subject of Artificial Intelligence in their own way. In a large suitcase, I bring along part of my extensive library on the subject. These books are mediation objects in themselves.

Then, to “move on” immediately in a creative and straightforward way, I suggest that they use the books to create photographs of visual material that could be used in their future exhibition. It’s creative work, because taking a photo of a book may seem trivial, but having the intention of creating a useful visual form from books is a real exploration of one’s own point of view, one’s own expression.

I’ve created a digital sharing space, very simply accessible via a QR code, which allows them to share their work. In this way, their creations are collective and accessible, so that they can concretely nourish their work of elaboration. All the creations I had them make were progressively deposited on this platform, which they used as a working tool.

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Mapping Artificial Intelligence

Based on their personal reflections and the exchanges we’ve had, I suggest that they each write down on sheets of paper the notions that seem important to them around the issues of artificial intelligence, and then we place them on the ground, in an attempt to establish a “cartography” of Artificial Intelligence. And finally, as they had already formed four working groups for their future exhibition, place their groups on this cartography.

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Collective bibliography

I invite them to return to a more academic approach, to photograph and share the covers and back covers of books they find useful on the subject of AI. In this way, we can collectively create a knowledge tool.

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Podcasts on AI

I now get them to combine creativity, self-expression, risk-taking and critical thinking: I ask them to choose an extract from a book that seems important to them, and to record it, publicly, as a podcast. The idea is that these podcasts could eventually be used to soundtrack the exhibition. This recording moment is intense, invested, difficult and therefore very constructive.

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Staged photographs

I now ask them to work in small teams to create staged photographs, which can also be used in the exhibition. The aim is to encourage them to work collectively, always focusing on creativity, fantasy and invention, which is what will make their exhibition interesting.

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Sound effects

The day before for the following day, I commission them to create sound ambiences, at least 5 minutes long, which can be used to create the sensation of immersion in the exhibition. The next day, we listen to these soundtracks, and are immersed in highly singular universes that work emotionally. It’s about sharing what I’ve listened to in my life, and sharing it with others.

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Definitions of key AI concepts

Once again on the podcast, I ask them to define key notions of Artificial Intelligence, in order to build an informative content. Before recording, they’ll have to do a lot of exploring, in books and elsewhere.

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Musical creation

On the second day, they were welcomed into the room by musical instruments I’d laid out on the table, easy to use and a joy to play. I invited them to explore the sounds they could make with them, and then to make recordings of potentially useful musical ambiences.

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Sensitive testimonials

I asked them each to record a sensitive testimony, real or imaginary, about a moment in their lives when Artificial Intelligence had had a major impact, changed their lives. These testimonies were very beautiful, very invested, like a crowning achievement of their journey over these two days.

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Experimenting with video-mapping

In the end, I got them to experiment with an artisanal video-mapping technique, based on the themes of Artificial Intelligence. It’s a very inspiring prototyping or production technique for imagining exhibitions.

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Experiments in the exhibition space

Over the next two days, Romain Baujard accompanied the students as they experimented with devices in the exhibition space.

Presentation of the exhibition project as part of the Rencontres Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes du Pôle régional d’éducation aux images et aux nouveaux médias

The students presented their exhibition project as part of the Rencontres Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes du Pôle régional d’éducation aux images et aux nouveaux médias at lux Scène nationale de Valence, before unveiling it to the public a fortnight later.

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The digital sharing space

Portfolio
“Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 1 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 2 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 3 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 4 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 5 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 6 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 7 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 8 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 9 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 10 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 11 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 12 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 13 © Benoît Labourdette 2024. “Artificial Intelligence: stop or yet?” - Workshop for the creation of an exhibition - 14 © Benoît Labourdette 2024.

Artificial intelligence has emancipated itself from research laboratories and works of science fiction thanks to the public launch in November 2022 of the conversational robot ChatGPT, which was very quickly appropriated by an immense number of people internationally, in professional, educational and even private contexts. The fact that artificial intelligence has now been identified by the human community as part of everyday life finally opens the door to critical awareness on this subject.

Of course, artificial intelligence concerns industry, work, creation, copyright... and we need to anticipate its future productive uses, in order to stay “up to date”. But to accompany our lives as they integrate this new facet, it seems to me essential to produce a critical thought, i.e. to put ourselves in a position to reflect on what is happening to us, what is changing us, to remain lucid and capable of freedom of thought and action.
What is “critical thinking”? It means questioning, from the outside, practices that have been internalized. To do this, I believe that experimentation, cultural action, play and hijacking are highly effective tools for research, exploration, dissemination and reflection. For me, research is collaborative, and intelligence is collective and creative. This requires good methods of cooperation, between human beings and with machines. Here, I bring together stories of experience, methodological texts and practical ideas. I share concrete ways in which artificial intelligence, like any other tool, can be invested in the service of humanism.

Here are a few openings for critical thinking on AI, in the form of questions:

  • Is artificial intelligence a subject in itself? Is it not rather a medium of existence, like digital technology, whose fields need to be distinguished in detail?
  • Why do we never talk about ecology when we talk about artificial intelligence?
  • Which works of science fiction would come closest to what we’re currently experiencing with AIs?
  • How can we use artificial intelligence in a playful way? How can we imagine creative activities for young and old alike?
  • What is the nature of the entanglement between artificial intelligence and the capitalist project?
  • What are the political dimensions of artificial intelligence?
  • How does artificial intelligence concern philosophy? Which philosophers are working on the subject today?
  • What is the history of artificial intelligence? Both its successive myths and the evolution of its technologies.
  • How can we create artificial intelligence ourselves? In particular, with the Python language.
  • Are there unseen artificial intelligences that have a major influence on our lives?
  • What does artificial intelligence bring to creation? How can we experiment with it?

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