Gallery QI Opening Event: Distributed Consciousness – Memo Akten – January 25, 2024 – 5 p.m.

RSVPs for opening night requested to galleryqi@ucsd.edu. 

A livestream will be available at 5 p.m. on Thursday, January 25. 

“Distributed Consciousness” will be open for viewing at the Gallery QI in UC San Diego's Atkinson Hall Monday – Friday, noon to 5 p.m. January 25 – March 20, 2024. The Gallery QI is closed weekends.

Summary

Join Gallery QI for the opening event of “Distributed Consciousness” by artist and creative technologist Memo Akten. Drawing upon the collaborative nature of knowledge building, the collective nature of intelligence, and the permeable boundaries between individuals, the show, which runs through March 20, employs cephalopods and cephalopod cognition as a means of reflecting upon the “increasingly powerful and pervasive synthetic alien intelligences of artificial intelligence (AI).”

Biography

Memo Akten is a multi-disciplinary artist, musician, and researcher creating Speculative Simulations and Data Dramatizations investigating the intricacies of human-machine entanglements. His work explores perception and states of consciousness; the tensions between ecology, technology, science and spirituality; and for more than a decade he’s been working with Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and our Collective Consciousness as scraped by the Internet, to reflect on the human condition. He writes code and uses algorithmic / data-driven design and aesthetics to create moving images, sounds, large-scale responsive installations and performances. He holds a Ph.D. from Goldsmiths University of London, specializing in artistic and creative applications of Artificial Intelligence, and he is currently Assistant Professor of Computational Art at the University of California, San Diego. Akten has received numerous awards including the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica, his work has been widely exhibited and performed internationally and featured in major publications.