CHELM INTELLIGENCE : daytime stargazing and creative encoding workshop
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CHELM INTELLIGENCE : daytime stargazing and creative encoding workshop

A workshop/installation inviting collective reflection about capturing, retaining, forgetting, and encoding information in the age of AI.

By Mai Omer

Date and time

Location

Science Gallery London

Great Maze Pond London SE1 9GU United Kingdom

About this event

  • Event lasts 2 hours 30 minutes

After seeing the moon disappear every month, the wise people of Chelm decided to finally catch it by capturing its reflection in a barrel. The silly wise people of Chelm always got it wrong, going backwards instead of forwards, looking down rather than up. But, they were not entirely unwise; there are advantages in looking indirectly.  Way before electricity, before the Enlightenment, our ancestors spent the long dark nights looking at shallow ponds. Catching the reflection of the night skies, they mapped the trajectories of the stars. During the long dark hours, our ancestors began to tell stories about the stars, combining planets with heroes, trajectories with narratives.  The maps they created provided orientation and guidance and also a bit of entertainment.

 

Today, in spite of light pollution and easy access to information, we are not far from these dark times. Knowledge is ephemeral. It is not captured but kept in the Cloud.  Once the Cloud is switched off, it would leave us truly in the dark. Taking inspiration from the people of Chelm, this workshop invites participants to try to capture computer-based intelligence. Together we will look at its symbolic reflections, imagine it as constellations,  stars and heroes, map their trajectories and tell stories which might provide orientation, guidance or at least a bit of entertainment.

*The event is supported by the London Arts & Humanities Partnership

Organized by

Free
Aug 29 · 3:30 AM GMT+1