THE NUMBER OF TOUCHES
Interactive installation with AI, 2025
TITLE: THE NUMBER OF TOUCHES
TECHNICAL INFO: Interactive installation with AI, 2025
PLACE: Human and Neural Networks: Who Creates Whom? / A joint project of Yandex and the Tretyakov Gallery / The New Tretyakov Gallery / Moscow, RU
TECHNICAL INFO: Interactive installation with AI, 2025
PLACE: Human and Neural Networks: Who Creates Whom? / A joint project of Yandex and the Tretyakov Gallery / The New Tretyakov Gallery / Moscow, RU
The work refers to the differences between the learning process of humans and AI, and aims to ask how ready we are to work with AI as a partner. For humans an interaction with the physical world plays a large role in obtaining information and this process involves all senses in our body, while machine learning is based on finding patterns in data. However, in 2025 year a new era in AI is predicted — the era of autonomous agents, when systems are designed to act independently and perform tasks in various industries with minimal human involvement. AI is becoming not just a tool, but a partner, and the artwork imagines how a human might begin contact with an AI colleague.
The installation consists of two futuristic pedestals and a central luminous object. The pedestals vaguely resemble ergonomic furniture for working at a computer and serve as an activator of the central object symbolizing AI. A human activates the installation with their body, taking a position, following the designated points on the pedestals for hands and feet. For an interaction a several points of contact with metal plates are important — through them the human “touch” to the AI occurs. The central object “counts” the number of “touches” for the last hour and for all days of the exhibition, displaying statistics on stretched screens (each pedestal has its own counter). If the number of touches for the last hour is less than twenty, the object turns blue, demonstrating that it is not ready for interaction. If more — it lights up red and begins to “respond” by sending individual messages for each visitor, which appear on the pedestal screen.
The installation consists of two futuristic pedestals and a central luminous object. The pedestals vaguely resemble ergonomic furniture for working at a computer and serve as an activator of the central object symbolizing AI. A human activates the installation with their body, taking a position, following the designated points on the pedestals for hands and feet. For an interaction a several points of contact with metal plates are important — through them the human “touch” to the AI occurs. The central object “counts” the number of “touches” for the last hour and for all days of the exhibition, displaying statistics on stretched screens (each pedestal has its own counter). If the number of touches for the last hour is less than twenty, the object turns blue, demonstrating that it is not ready for interaction. If more — it lights up red and begins to “respond” by sending individual messages for each visitor, which appear on the pedestal screen.
