CAC Project First Installment 

LLMscape: A Technolinguistic Exploration of Climate Narratives

2024.9.21 – 10.20

Chronus Art Center

2nd Floor, Building 11, No.50 Mo Gan Shan Rd, Shanghai

• ARTISTS:Gottfried Haider & ZHANG Jie

• EXHIBITION OPENING:2024.9.21 14:00-18:00

• Artists Conversation 15:00-15:30

• HOURS:11 am – 6 pm (last entry 5:30 pm)

• Wednesdays – Sundays

• Free Admission

 

Chronus Art Center (CAC) is pleased to present the first outcome exhibition of the Research & Creation (R&C) @CAC Project, LLMscape: A Technolinguistic Exploration of Climate Narratives. The exhibition will open on September 21, 2024, and remain on view until October 20, 2024.

During their residency from June to September 2024, artists Gottfried Haider and ZHANG Jie further developed their installation, LLMscape: A Technolinguistic Exploration of Climate Narratives, based on its prototype. They explored how the contingency and collectiveness inherent in Large Language Models (LLMs) construct the technological processes of virtual entities, and, with the help of game engines, they unlocked new possibilities for ecological narratives.

LLMscape is an exploration of ecological narratives generated through the interactions within and outside a system, skillfully merging the technological emergence of LLMs with the climate crisis as represented by island. Central to LLMscape is a sandbox terrain, a contemporary adaptation of the sand table—a tool traditionally used in military simulations to strategize and predict outcomes within complex systems. In this context, the sandbox becomes a site of ecological simulation, populated by artificial agents each endowed with dispositions, memories, and the capacity for planning. They embody a blend of human and non-human perspectives, with behaviors evolving over time, shaped by both their inherent characteristics and interactions with participants. 

Via speech or physical manipulation, one could engage with the system, intervening with the trajectories of the virtual world. Every subtle change and language input is reflected in the artificial, revealing the intricate causalities inherent in real-world ecological systems.

Gottfried Haider & ZHANG Jie, LLMscape: A Technolinguistic Exploration of Climate Narratives ©the artists

LLMscape has been created as a virtual ecology accompanied by open codes and various generative possibilities that render the often remote and diffuse realities of climate change immediate and perceptible. The interplay between human participants and artificial agents in a simulated environment reflects the broader ecological narrative—where diverse forms of agency interact, generating outcomes that are both unpredictable and emergent. It invites contemplation on our entangled existence within a systemic ecology. 

<About the Artists>

Gottfried Haider is an artist, educator, and software tool builder. He received a degree in Digital Arts from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and an MFA from the Design Media Arts program at UCLA. He currently holds the position of Assistant Arts Professor at NYU Shanghai. Haider's art has been presented in numerous exhibitions and festivals internationally. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica.

ZHANG Jie is an architect, researcher and entrepreneur. She serves as part of the founding team of Design Innovation Institute Shanghai (DIIS) and is responsible for strategic development, ecosystem and incubation. Prior to DIIS, she led landmark architectural projects in the US, EU and China at various esteemed architectural studios. Her design work often addresses urban regeneration and environmental intelligence, and has been awarded by the AIA, IIDA, Red Dot Best of the Best, among others. Zhang holds a BA from Yale University and a MArch from MIT.