Learning to See at AI: More than Human, Barbican (2019)

AI: More than Human, Barbican, London, UK, 16 May–26 Aug 2019

Images

Learning to See (Interactive) installation view at AI: More than Human, Barbican Centre, London, UK, 2019.

Selected Exhibitions, Performances & Presentations

Only selected shows with project pages are listed below. For more complete exhibition and performance history please see Show History.

InstallationInteractiveVideoArtificial IntelligenceConsciousnessDanceEcologyGalleryLanguageMindMotion TrackingMusic & Sound DesignSimulationOpen SourcePerception

Superradiance, Learning to See at Creative Machine

2024

Works shown

For more information on the works shown here, see: Learning to See: Interactive, Learning to See: Gloomy Sunday.

InstallationInteractiveSoftwareArtificial IntelligenceGalleryMindOpen SourcePerception

Learning to See: Interactive

2017

VideoArtificial IntelligenceGalleryMindOpen SourcePerception

Learning to See: Gloomy Sunday

2017

Writing

2025
Externalizing Imagination. Memo Akten and Katie Hofstadter. Invited essay for AI | Alternative Intentions. Right Click Save, March 24, 2025. ★
2021
Deep Visual Instruments: Realtime Continuous, Meaningful Human Control over Deep Neural Networks for Creative Expression. Memo Akten. Goldsmiths, University of London, 2021.
2017
Hello, World!
2017
We are made of star dust

Press

Interviews

2026 Memo Akten on Rituals as Algorithms, Le Random, 13 Jul 2026 · Interview ★
2020 Memo Akten’s art sees artificial intelligence tackle life, love, and faith, Dazed & Confused, 19 Feb 2020 · Interview ★
2019 Memo Akten: Spiritual Technology, Metal Magazine, 30 Nov 2019 · Interview ★
2018 Machine Learning Art: An Interview With Memo Akten, Artnome, 16 Dec 2018 · Interview ★

Features

2025 Responding to Global Challenges Through Data-Driven Art, The New Real Magazine 2 (1): Planetary Futures, pp. 48–52, 27 Jun 2025 · Article
2025 【演算法的靈光】在數據裡尋找靈魂梅莫．阿克騰：在人工智慧中尋找靈性與感知的邊界, ARTouch / Art & Investment 392, 19 May 2025 · Article
2020 Beyond “GANism”: AI Art as Conceptual Art, AI CIAC MTL 3, Apr · Article
2020 Bots vs. AI: Two Kinds of Software Art Take Different Approaches to the Digital Commons, Art in America, 23 Jan 2020 · Article
2019 Plurality Of Digital Practices, Art in the Digital Age, 18 Jan 2019 · Review ★
2018 Memo Akten Explores Human-Machine Interaction with AI, Hyundai / Bloomberg Art and Technology series, short documentary profile of Memo Akten, 1 May 2018 · Documentary · Video (4:13) ★
2017 DocLab exhibition asks “Are robots imitating us or are we imitating robots?”, We Make Money Not Art, 28 Nov 2017 · Review

Books

2025 Cinematic Algorithms: The Rise of Generative AI in Video Art and Visual Culture, James Hutson, Andrew Smith, CRC Press · Book ★
2024 The Art of Artificial Intelligence: Philosophical Keywords, Alice Barale, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 19 · Book
2024 Data-Driven Innovation in the Creative Industries, Melissa Terras, Vikki Jones, Nicola Osborne, Chris Speed (eds.), Routledge, pp. 206 · Book
2023 Autographic Design: The Matter of Data in a Self-Inscribing World, Dietmar Offenhuber, MIT Press, pp. 183–184, 192–194 · Book ★
2023 Digital Art (World of Art, fourth edition), Christiane Paul, Thames & Hudson, pp. 222–224 · Book ★
2022 Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to AI for Architects, Neil Leach, Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 87–88, 183, 185, 187, 203 · Book ★
2022 Collective Wisdom: Co-Creating Media for Equity and Justice, Katerina Cizek, William Uricchio, MIT Press, pp. 318 · Book ★
2022 The Contested Territory of Architectural Theory, Elie G. Haddad (eds.), Routledge, pp. 234 · Book
2021 Art in the Age of Machine Learning, Sofian Audry, MIT Press, pp. 4, 56–59, 150–152, 160, 176 · Book ★
2020 The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity, Arthur I. Miller, MIT Press, pp. 74–76 · Book ★

Other Coverage

2026 Off-Grid Aesthetics: Where the AI Prompt Cannot Go, Right Click Save, 17 Jul 2026 · Article
2025 Christiane Paul on Defining AI Art, Le Random, 23 Apr 2025 · Article
2022 AI Artist Spotlight: Memo Akten, NightCafe, 22 Dec 2022 · Article
2021 Like an A.I. acid trip, this neural net rebuilds reality with flowers and fire, Digital Trends, 4 Aug 2021 · Article
2021 Memo Akten: the environmentally conscious digital artist, Art Rights, 13 May 2021 · Article ★
2020 Artificial Intelligence art critics, Wired, 25 Jan 2020 · Article
2018 Learning to See, MIT Docubase, 26 Nov 2018 · Article
2018 Learning To See – Making deep neural network predictions on live camera input, CreativeApplications.net, 20 Mar 2018 · Article ★
2018 How to trick artificial intelligence?, Tech Insider, 20 Mar 2018 · Article

News

2019 GTC 2019 Keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, NVIDIA, Learning to See shown at 0:32, with the voiceover “[AI is] inventing new ways to bring out the creative genius in us all”, 18 Mar 2019 · News · Video
2018 Learning to see : la machine-artiste de Memo Akten au Grand Palais !, Grand Palais, 14 Jun 2018 · News
2018 Что происходит, когда ИИ знает только о цветах, волнах и огне, Shazoo, 22 Mar 2018 · News
2018 Watch neural networks see only what they've been trained to see, Boingboing, 21 Mar 2018 · News
2018 Снятся ли нейросетям электроовцы? Машина разглядела цветы в проводах, Tech Onliner, 20 Mar 2018 · News
2018 Gloomy Sunday, Prosthetic Knowledge, 18 Mar 2018 · News

Academic Papers

2025 Bizarre Love Triangle: Generative AI, Art and Kitsch, Dejan Grba, Journal of Digital Media & Interaction 8 (20), pp. 65–80, 30 Dec 2025 · Academic paper
2025 The End of the Image, Shawn Lawson, Mutual Images Journal 13, pp. 115–128, 20 Dec 2025 · Academic paper
2025 Geleceğin Sanatına Yolculuk: Dijital Sanatın Yapay Zekayla Buluşması, Semra Beyza Kahraman, Sezgi Nur Öztürk, İstanbul Arel Üniversitesi İletişim Çalışmaları Dergisi 27, pp. 120–134, 24 Jun 2025 · Academic paper
2024 Reflexive Data Curation: Opportunities and Challenges for Embracing Uncertainty in Human–AI Collaboration, Anne Arzberger, Maria Luce Lupetti, Elisa Giaccardi, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 31 (6), article 74, pp. 74:5, Dec · Academic paper
2024 Visions of Destruction: Exploring a Potential of Generative AI in Interactive Art, Mar Canet Sola, Varvara Guljajeva, 17th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction (VINCI 2024), article 36, pp. 1–8, Dec · Academic paper
2024 Curadoria, cognição e sensibilidade: exposições de arte com inteligência artificial, Daniel Hora, Revista VIS 23 (2), pp. 78–94, Dec · Academic paper
2024 Convergence and Process Orientation in Algorithm and Generative Art, Qiaohe Yang, Proceedings of the 2024 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2024), Atlantis Press, pp. 339–341, 21 Jun 2024 · Academic paper
2024 Machine Learning Processes as Sources of Ambiguity: Insights from AI Art, Christian Sivertsen, Guido Salimbeni, Anders Sundnes Løvlie, Steve Benford, Jichen Zhu, Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24), article 165, pp. 1–14, 11 May 2024 · Academic paper
2024 Visions Of Destruction: Exploring Human Impact on Nature by Navigating the Latent Space of a Diffusion Model via Gaze, Mar Canet Sola, Varvara Guljajeva, Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’24), pp. 1–5, 11 Feb 2024 · Academic paper
2022 Architectural Hallucinations: What Can AI Tell Us About the Mind of an Architect?, Neil Leach, Architectural Design 92 (3), Machine Hallucinations: Architecture and Artificial Intelligence, pp. 66–71, 7 Apr 2022 · Academic paper ★
2022 Experiential AI: Enhancing explainability in artificial intelligence through artistic practice, Drew Hemment, Dave Murray-Rust, Vaishak Belle, Ruth Aylett, Matjaz Vidmar, Frank Broz, University of Edinburgh (preprint), pp. 8, 18 Mar 2022 · Academic paper
2022 Deep Else: A Critical Framework for AI Art, Dejan Grba, Digital 2 (1), pp. 1–32, 5 Jan 2022 · Academic paper
2022 Towards a heuristic model for experiential AI: Analysing The Zizi show in The New Real, Drew Hemment, Martin Zeilinger, Matjaz Vidmar, Jake Elwes, Holly Warner, David Sarmiento Pérez, Robin Hill, DRS2022: Bilbao, pp. 10 · Academic paper
2021 Prototyping Machine Learning Through Diffractive Art Practice, Hugo Scurto, Baptiste Caramiaux, Frédéric Bevilacqua, Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2021 (DIS ’21), pp. 2013–2025, 28 Jun 2021 · Academic paper
2020 Memo Akten’s Learning to See: from machine vision to the machinic unconscious, Claudio Celis Bueno, María Jesús Schultz Abarca, AI & SOCIETY 36 (2021), pp. 1177–1187, 23 Sept 2020 · Academic paper
2020 Creative AI: From Expressive Mimicry to Critical Inquiry, Angus G. Forbes, Artnodes 26, pp. 1–10, 21 Jul 2020 · Academic paper
2019 AI: More Than Human, Barbican, 16 May–26 August, Thomas Hodgson, Sound Studies 6 (1), 2020, pp. 99–103, 4 Nov 2019 · Academic paper

Collections

2024 M+ Museum of Contemporary Visual Culture, Hong Kong

Show History

Group Exhibitions

2025 Creative Machine, Wanlin Art Museum, Wuhan, China
2024 Creative Machine, Taikang Art Museum, Beijing, China, 15 Nov 2024–Apr 2025
2024 Execute Photography, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2023 AI: Artificial Intelligence, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain, 18 Oct 2023–17 Mar 2024
2022 AI: More than Human, Guangdong Science Centre, China
2022 In Plain Sight, The Wellcome Collection, London, UK
2022 Stranger Dreams, Mains d'Oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, Paris, France
2021 AI: More than Human, World Museum, Liverpool, UK, 18 May–31 Oct 2021
2021 Im/possible Images, Lothringer 13 Halle, München, Germany
2021 When Machines Dream the Future, Goethe Institute, Online ★
2020 Watermans Art Centre, London, UK, online exhibition
2019 AI: More than Human, Forum Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands, 7 Dec 2019–16 Aug 2020
2019 AI: More than Human, Barbican, London, UK, 16 May–26 Aug 2019 ★
2018 Future Humanity: Our Shared Planet, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, Beijing, China, 7 Nov 2018–28 Feb 2019
2017 DocLab, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Amsterdam, Netherlands