The use of AI raises questions about who or what has agency. What does the shift of this decision-making power away from the individual mean for artists as well as for society, the planet, and the future of humanity?
In this book launch for AI and the Paradox of Agency, a panel of artists and writers consider how their power and decision-making shifts while engaging with AI systems.
The event will also include a screening of Zeno Gries’ Gravity Will Take Us All. The film follows Norbert Wiener, the originator of cybernetics, who has collapsed while on a lecture trip while on a lecture trip. As the drone's eye view starts moving up and over the streets of Stockholm, a dreamy and at times delirious introspection into his mind is heard.
The film constructs a fictionalised account of Wiener’s final moments in Stockholm in 1964 to examine cybernetics and its future implications for humanity, society, and technology. Wiener’s monologue consists of original audio from his lectures and a speculative text, spoken by an AI-generated approximation of his voice. Distinctions between humans and machines become blurry. Who is speaking?
The book AI and the Paradox of Agency accompanies an exhibition at Bildmuseet, in Umeå, Sweden until January 2027.
Biographies
Sarah Cook
Sarah Cook is a curator, researcher, writer, and professor in Museum Studies in Information Studies at the University of Glasgow. She holds the WASP-HS guest professorship in Art and AI with UmArts, Bildmuseet and the School of Architecture at Umeå University. She has curated and co-curated over fifty international exhibitions most featuring new art commissions about how we live in a technological world.
Charlotte Kent
Charlotte Kent is an arts writer and Associate Professor of Visual Culture at Montclair State University. She specializes in twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, digital culture, and emergent technologies. She is the co-author and co-editor of multiple books, a regular contributor to magazines and journals, and an Editor-at-Large for the Brooklyn Rail, where she writes a monthly column on Art & Technology. She serves on the College Art Association’s Committee for Intellectual Property.
Alasdair Milne
Alasdair Milne is a researcher in the philosophy of technology, with a focus on machine learning R&D and its cultural implications. He completed his Ph.D. with Serpentine Galleries and King’s College London in 2025, where he is part of the Creative AI Lab. He is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Information Studies at the University of Glasgow and a Researcher at Antikythera.
Zeno Gries
Zeno Gries has an open-ended approach to artistic work, deliberately relinquishing control over certain aspects of the creative process. This methodology often leads them to collaborate with scholars, actors, nonhumans, and other artists from various disciplines. Zeno Gries utilizes a diverse and ever-evolving range of new media, with a primary focus on film, video, and software. Recent fellowships and grants include the talent film development scholarship by the Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, a residency at UmArts, Umeå, Sweden, and a scholarship as Styria-Artist-in-Residence in Graz, Austria.
Further speakers to be confirmed.
The event will be followed by a drinks reception.
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