What can Artificial Intelligence (AI)* learn from our tears?

Join us for the launch of 576 Tears, a new digital artwork created by Zach Blas and commissioned by UP Projects for This is Public Space.

This event will offer insight into Blas’ practice, 576 Tears and the religious beliefs and fantasies that influence popular conceptions of Artificial Intelligence and the ideation and making of the work. Blas’ presentation will be followed by a conversation between the artist and curator and cultural strategist, Julia Kaganskiy. Kaganskiy is a leading voice in art and technology and helped launch several ground breaking programmes in the field, including The Creators Project (VICE/Intel) and NEW INC (New Museum).

576 Tears is an experiment in emotional crying with an imagined Artificial Intelligence god and invites audiences to experience how and what an AI god might learn from the process of religious weeping. As a symbol and ritual of worship, religious crying is considered a pious method of communicating with god and the divine. By training an AI god on images of tears; writings on crying in religious, philosophical, scientific, cultural, and technical contexts; music about weeping; the sounds of crying; and the emotional state of website visitors’ faces, 576 Tears broadly considers what tears might communicate, symbolise, express, and teach in an era that fantastically imbues artificial intelligence with godly power.

The commission culminates in an ever-growing archive of tears collected from participants and is underpinned by a musical score composed with an AI neural network trained on the sounds of crying and the song ‘96 Tears’ by ? And The Mysterians.

The event will take place online in The Hall, UP Projects’ digital participation space. Book your free ticket now.