Generative AI as a Symbiotic Medium
Commissioned artwork, TANK Shanghai (CN)
Interactive media installation, real-time generative AI, touchscreen interface, 2xLED screens
2023
Co-Authored Traversals
Co-Authored Traversals is a real-time generative media installation that stages an inquiry into the dependencies of contemporary machine intelligence systems. The project examines the structural reliance of generative AI on prompt-based architectures, foregrounding the mutualistic, non-autonomous conditions under which synthetic outputs emerge.
The installation is grounded in a large-scale dataset of millions of user-generated prompts, scraped from publicly available online repositories. From this corpus, a controlled lexicon of one thousand frequently-used terms was extracted and indexed into a spatial interface composed of rotating three-dimensional spheres. A touchscreen-based interaction system allows participants to activate specific keywords, which in turn trigger a real-time synthesis pipeline: flowing text sequences appear onscreen and dynamically prompt a generative visual process.
The temporal quality of the system is central. In continuous interaction, the installation produces a stream of evolving visuals. In the absence of engagement, however, the system suspends operations and reverts to a static, monochromatic mode. This oscillation between activity and inertia is both operational and conceptual, suggesting that computational systems of this kind do not contain within themselves the conditions for autonomous emergence. Unlike natural systems that regenerate or persist independently, generative systems remain externally contingent.
Framed through the lens of Heraclitus’ doctrine of flux, the installation adopts transformation and impermanence as foundational logics. The invocation of the river metaphor does not function illustratively, but structurally, signaling a logic of perpetual variation under constraint. The work resists the spectacle of novelty for its own sake, instead revealing the systemic requirements for transformation to occur.
This configuration aligns with theoretical work on the relational dynamics of technical systems. Drawing from Gilbert Simondon’s philosophy of individuation, the machine is understood not as an autonomous agent but as a metastable structure conditioned by its associated milieu, including human agents. Yuk Hui’s theory of technodiversity further informs the project’s position: generative systems are not universally creative, but shaped by epistemic and infrastructural parameters. The installation thus becomes a model for understanding creativity as a situated, distributed process, one that arises through interfacial dependency rather than sovereign generation.
By rendering these interdependencies visible, Co-Authored Traversals calls into question persistent narratives of machine autonomy. It proposes that generativity is not a function of internal intelligence but of ongoing structural engagement. In doing so, it foregrounds the politics of activation and the ethics of relational co-production, offering a critical counterpoint to dominant accounts of computational creativity as either self-sufficient or purely instrumental.
Acknowledgments
The work has been exhibited in Synthetic Cities.
Creation & Production： Stavros Didakis
Media Design Assistance： Yanrui Shao、Guoxi Yang、Vicky Chen
Production Coordinator： Huijun Guan
LED Equipment： Leyard | Linso LED
Co-Funded： West Bund Group