Stefan Helmreich, Rosa Menkman, Priyamvada Natarajan, C. Brandon Ogbunu are the panelists of Unfolding Models

How do tools in computation shape the models that scientists, artists, and engineers make of the world and universe? From simulations of cosmic evolution to models of the unfolding of epidemics, computer and AI-aided work sees practitioners unfolding the possibilities of digital calculation and representation. In play are ways of animating theories, translating abstractions into code, and working, often collaboratively and cross-disciplinarily, across scales of structure and degrees of data resolution in order to fashion models that can force new thinking or intervention into the realms—physical, biological, social, and political—that such models represent.

Convened by Stefan Helmreich.

Unfolding Models https://unfoldingai.mit.edu/#unfolding-models 
Video Release: Friday, April 2, 2021 / 9:00am EDT 
Live Q&A: Monday, April 5, 2021 / 5:00–6:00pm EDT

ANTHROPOLOGY

Stefan Helmreich

RESOLUTION THEORY

Rosa Menkman

PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

Priyamvada Natarajan

COMPUTATIONAL EVOLUTIONARY
BIOLOGY

C. Brandon Ogbunu

“Unfolding Intelligence: The Art and Science of Contemporary Computation” gathers artists, scientists, and humanists to discuss aesthetic, technical, and critical issues pertaining to artificial intelligence (AI) and computation. The goal of this interdisciplinary conversation is to bridge popular and tech-world understandings of AI as well as domain-specific, academic, and artistic approaches. The panel discussions stage art-science encounters with the goal of mingling otherwise enclosed areas of research, allowing for new public scrutiny and creating an inclusive field of inquiry that encourages a socially engaged view of our machines.  

The four “Unfolding Intelligence” panels address the following questions: How do recent tools in computation shape the models that scientists, artists, and engineers make of the world and universe? Can artists and scientists create a world in which Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and artificial intelligence (AI) are meaningfully brought together? Can AI and software systems explain how historically recalcitrant forms of oppression persist, embedded in our technologies? Can these same agents possibly provide alternative ways of being and living together? How has computation shaped the concept of intelligence and what models for the unfolding or formation of ideas does it provide?

Full April 1-9 symposium info: https://unfoldingai.mit.edu