The interactive installation proposed by the Interaction Design studio Dotdotdot at Fuorisalone, from April 15th to 21st, is called “Data Bugs – AI is a Mirror“. It is located at their new venue on Via Tertulliano 70 (entrance at number 68) in Milan: in an imaginary universe populated by insects, visitors are invited to explore two scenarios where representation and simplification are two sides of the same coin. The reason for the pervasive cross-cutting nature of Artificial Intelligence lies in its ability to sift through and analyse billions of pieces of information in fractions of a second, with significant repercussions for our daily lives. It becomes more and more urgent to understand computing processes and how, from a series of inputs, sometimes “unexpected” outputs are generated, aptly named “hallucinations”.
With “Data Bugs – AI is a Mirror”, Dotdotdot encourages reflection on the responsibilities we have as human beings in providing data and training a technology that is revolutionising our lives by simulating human thought. “Artificial intelligence is an application and research area that Dotdotdot has been experimenting with for several years,” explains Alessandro Masserdotti, co-founder and CTO of Dotdotdot. “With this project, we have chosen to dig deeper into Explainable AI (XAI) to give visitors an immersive emotional experience that allows them to visualise the way Machine Learning models make decisions and generate outputs, shedding light on and encouraging reflection on the implications this has for our society.”
Founded in 2004 by Laura Dellamotta (architect), Giovanna Gardi (architect), Alessandro Masserdotti (philosopher and interaction designer) and Fabrizio Pignoloni (designer), Dotdotdot was among the first studios in Italy to deal with Interaction Design, i.e., the relationship between people, spaces, technologies, and machines, experimenting with forms of visual and sound set-up to create unique experiences for the public. In 2014, they created OpenDot: a space open to the city, a Fab Lab dedicated to rapid prototyping, which has become a centre for research and social innovation over the course of ten years.
