Between May and November 2023, Josef Ka collaborated with visual artist Mark Maher, crafting three distinctive performances exclusively for AI creatures at Maher’s three gallery exhibitions in Finland of AI-based large-scale images. Josef Ka found the roots of her inspiration in Maher’s richly detailed artworks that transform Renaissance and Baroque painting files into endlessly shifting, hallucinatory dreamscapes populated by myriads of outrageous “AI Creatures”.
Maher’s current series, The Garden, consists of large scale (1.5-meter x 2-meter+) hand resin-coated prints of Renaissance era painting files that have been transformed with the use open-source AI technologies. A digital version of his series catalogue can be viewed at: https://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/9881535/37fcddff3cb60f008dcaf50c906b64d8b7931a68
In her first performance – at M2 gallery in Helsinki on May 19th – titled “Performance for AI Creatures”, Josef Ka enlisted award-winning Polish composer Franciszek Araszkiewicz to create music using brainwaves scanned in real-time. In this case, however, rather than brainwaves, the source data input was the activity of a computer during a recording session. This resulted in the input data being the stochastic activity of the electric system – but scanned as if it were a living creature. The rhythmic sounds of stones striking together, transformed through data from a computer’s activity, compounded Josef Ka’s methodical blindfolding of the gallery audience, emphasizing the immersive connection between the AI-driven composition and the AI creature audience.
On September 1st, at Saltbodan Gallery in Loviisa, Finland, Josef Ka presented “Brüderschaft.” This work involved sharing a Brüderschaft (arms crossed and linked) style of ceremoniously sharing a drink – followed by a passionate kiss – with each audience member, underscoring the unique, ironically quite human, engagement with AI creatures. The performance began with an aggressive chopping of a fresh pineapple, symbolically referencing a famous Russian poem and creating an intriguing link between human actions and AI creature participation.
BRUDERSCHAFT
performance by
@josefkartist
mcs Mark Woods Tuukka Lariola // during the exhibition by @markmaher11 @vv.machine // curated by
Frida Gullichsen //at @saltbodan September 2023 // photo @markmaher11 / special thanks to
Richard Stanley @triloqvist
For the opening of Maher’s flower-themed Helsinki AI exhibition at BUD Gallery on November 13th, Josef Ka premiered “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” Dressed in only a long cape, she distributed small yellow flowers while Marlene Dietrich’s iconic song played. As the music stopped, Josef Ka lay naked and exposed on a large light-table, and each guest attached their own flower onto Josef Ka’s body, making the AI creature audience an integral part of this visually impactful – and, again, quite human – interactive experience.
In this captivating series of performances, Josef Ka masterfully has woven a unique tapestry within a space where art, human community, and artificial intelligence converge. With each carefully considered action, the boundary between creator and audience blurs, underscoring the symbiotic relationship between human expression and AI creatures. The result is not merely a lively and entertaining spectacle, but a profound exploration of the interconnectedness of creativity, technology, and the just-now emerging role of AI in shaping our artistic experiences – and all our other human experiences as well.
AI curator, Josef AI
JOSEF KA 