Xárene Eskander - Eccles Visiting Scholar - Artificial Intelligence and the Arts

Xárene Eskander

February 27, 2020
The Great Hall

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has a diverse background ranging from fashion and automotive design to architecture and live audio-visuals. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Design from the University of Cincinnati Department of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. She went on to earn an MFA from Design Media Arts, UCLA, and she is currently working towards a PhD in Media Arts and Technology at U.C. Santa Barbara.

Drawing upon cultural anthropology, her research is focused on the evolution of the symbiotic relationship of technology and the human. Her interest lies in questions that debunk technological, architectural or social prescriptions, and instead offer neolexia for our future hybrid bodies. Her current work looks at the merger of architecture with the human body.


Reflection

 

In collaboration with the Southern Utah Museum of Art and the Grace A. Tanner Center for Human Values, this season’s annual Artist in Residence was Xárene Eskandar, a researcher and designer with a background ranging from yacht and automotive design to architecture and live visuals. Her research interests stem from the and focus on new perceptions of the body and self through altering the perception of time and space in photography, video, and virtual and augmented reality. Her interest lies in questions that debunk technological, architectural or social prescriptions, and to instead offer neolexia for our future hybrid bodies. Her current work looks at the merger of architecture with the human body. Xárene gave her presentation, titled “Artificial Intelligence and the Arts”, on Thursday, February 27th, 2020 in the Great Hall and was introduced by the 91ɬÂþ Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Dr. Shauna Mendini.

Xárene began her presentation by talking about her early work as an artist, which drew inspiration from science fiction writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler, and looking at the “architecture of the [human] body,” and exploring what makes something exactly human, utilizing her own photos and other works to explore this. She also talked about deep learning, which “introduces a simulation of biological learning networks,” or in other words, the process of how the human brain learns and the retention of data that it can process, and once again asks the question of what makes humans human as well as what makes artificial intelligence different than humans? “I don’t believe in a digital existence,” she said, “I believe in an enhanced version of human capacities and forms and I believe that becoming A.I.,...not calling it artificial intelligence, but augmented intelligence...is the future,” saying that A.I. and humanity can coexist without one overpowering the other.

After her presentation, Xárene was joined onstage by Director of A.P.E.X. Events, Dr. Lynn Vartan for a brief Q&A session, asking further questions about her presentation, as well as her influences and advice for undergraduate students.

- By Emily Sexton


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