Stephanie Dinkins: On Love & Data

Name: Stephanie Dinkins: On Love & Data, 8/27/2021-10/23/2021
Start: 2021-08-27
End: 2021-10-23
Location: Stamps Gallery

Curated by Srimoyee Mitra

Computer-generated image shows a flower garden full of glowing spheres — Stephanie Dinkins, *Secret Garden* (video still), 2020

When

August 27 – October 23, 2021

Where

In-person Event

Stamps Gallery
201 South Division Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Map/Directions
Hours/Access

Details

Exhibition
Open to the public
Free of charge
Watch Video

Stamps Gallery is proud to present the first survey of renowned transmedia artist Stephanie Dinkins, who creates platforms for dialogue about artificial intelligence as it intersects race, gender, aging, and our future histories.

Through her work, Dinkins has become a central figure nationally and internationally recognized for exposing bias and inequity within artificial intelligence systems. Weaving together art production and exhibition, community-based workshops and public speaking all with the intention of encouraging action towards making artificial intelligence systems more inclusive, accessible and transparent.

In this exhibition, Dinkins will debut new and interactive installations and workshops that build on her concept of Afro-now-ism. In this poetic manifesto-like text, Dinkins asks her audience, particularly from communities of color, to not only confront the litany of violences that humans have wielded upon one another based on the institutional and social constructions of race, caste, class, and gender to maintain status quo and the current systems of power — but rise above it by taking action to start building the world that they desire.

She writes: “Instead of waiting to reach the proverbial promised land, also known as a time in the future that may or may not manifest in your lifetime, Afro-now-ism is taking the leap and the risks to imagine and define oneself beyond systemic oppression… For black people in particular, it means conceiving yourself in the space of free and expansive thought and acting from a critically integrated space, allowing for more community-sustaining work.”

Through her installations and workshops Stephanie Dinkins: On Love & Data develops a dialogue with the audience on the hierarchies embedded within machine learning and AI architecture and one’s individual agency in transforming the algorithms within it. The audience will explore and participate in creating a more inclusive data-based narrative of what governance of the people, by the people and for the people can look like in an AI mediated world where care is encoded within our digital civic system.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Stephanie Dinkins: On Love & Date is a part of a2Tech360, celebrating Ann Arbor’s spirit of innovation through experiences, conversations, and connections that strengthen and expand the region’s vibrant ecosystem, October 1 – 8, 2021.

Related Events

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love & Data - Tour - August 28, 2021
Stephanie Dinkins - September 16, 2021
Stephanie Dinkins: A new project for Dlectricity - September 24, 2021
Binary Calculations are Inadequate to Assess Us - October 7, 2021
Building Equitable Ecologies of AI and Machine Learning - October 15, 2021

Gallery

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view (outside)

A view of the front door of Stamps Gallery with an exhibtion poster hanging in the window on the right and a large vinyl covered pillar on the right. The front door is made of glass and you can see the purple and yellow light from one of Stephanie's artworks as you pear inside.

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view (front door)

View of the neon light sculpture Afro-Now-Ism on the left and the title wall and exhibtion text on the right. The title wall text is in purple pixelated font and there are large yellow squares in the middle of the title wall.

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Title wall and Afro-Now-Ism neon sign)

Neon sign of text spread out across the wall. The words Afro, Now and Ism are in purple neon light. The words Now, Own and Now are in yellow neon light. There are tiny red lights embedded in between the words Afro, Now and Ism.

Stephanie Dinkins: Afro-Now-Ism

A lenticular print that is in the shape of a circle with a frame around it. In the frame is a non binary black person named Professor Commander Justice dressed in red and speaking to the visitor.

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Lenticular print)

Video projected on to two walls in a dark room. The projection is rainbow colored and galatic looking. Visitor stands in front of the projection interacting with it.

Stephanie Dinkins: Say it Aloud

A small room off the pathway that houses an interactive screen. The prompt on the screen reads "What do you, in your heart of hearts, want to create?" There is a smaller screen within the screen of a video recording of the person standing in the room.

Stephanie Dinkins: Say it Aloud (Recording Booth)

Large open space with four voting booths towards the corners. Two of the voting booths are tall and two are closser to the ground. All voting booths are open excpet for one. One of the voting booths is closed and acts as a table with printed newsprint broadsheets on it. On the far wall is a flatscreen TV showing the interface of the Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess Us app. On the wall on the right is vinyl text that reads "What does AI need from you?" This text is large and purple. It fills the entire wall and is repeated numerous times.

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess us)

Detailed picture of the Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess Us app interface pulled up on a an iPad. The interface is multi-colored with pink, peach and blue. The iPad is in the voting booth.

Stephanie Dinkins: Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess us (Voting Booth)

Voting booth folded up and used as a table to hold newspaper print broadsheets that have purple text on them that repeat the word black. There is also a pixelated image of professor Commander Justice a black woman in a red dress.

Stephanie Dinkins: Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess us (Newspapers on Voting Booth)

Large open space. On the wall in front is vinyl text that reads "What does AI need from you?" This text is large and purple. It fills the entire wall and is repeated numerous times. There is a voting booth with newspapers located on the right.

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (What does AI need from You?)

Three square images are hung on a white wall. The images are computer generated images. The first has a sepia overtone and looks like the torso of a woman who is folding her arms across her abdomen. The second has black and white tones and looks like a glitched top hat with teeth near the bottom. The third is in color and looks like the face of an older white woman who is smiling. Each of the images have computer generated deformities.

Stephanie Dinkins: A ______ Woman Smiling

There is a TV up on the wall. The TV screen is divided into four sections and plays a recording of Dinkins and Bina 48 facing each other and having a conversation. The camera is zoomed in to capture from the shoulders up.

Stephanie Dinkins: Conversations with Bina48 Fragments 7, 6, 5, 2

Square print made up of textured blue and brown stripes with glimpses of a Black person's face.

Stephanie Dinkins: Untitled 1

Square print made up of textured dark blue, light blue and red stripes in an abstract form.

Stephanie Dinkins: Untitled 2

Square print made up of textured blue and white stripes with glimpses of a Black person's face.

Stephanie Dinkins: Untitled 3

A black sculpture sitting on a wooden table. The sculpture spirals up from a round base to a point at the top, almost in the shape of a tear. There are faces portruding out of the base of the sculpture.

Stephanie Dinkins: Not the Only One V1. Beta 2

A large digital exhibition. There are 3 walls with videos being projected onto them that give the visual effect of layers. The background layer is a contrast of black with large white petals from an ocra plant. In the foreground are purple and yellow poppies and yellow roses. In the middle, there are 6 women, each wearing a different garment to represent the timeperiod they represent.

Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden

A young light-skinned Black woman wearing a pink plaid coat, jeans and a large necklace made of shells. This woman has her hair in two buns. To the right of her is a Black woman wearing a purple outfit that covers her head. Behind and surrounding the women are a collage of cotton, purple flowers, and okra.

Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden (Detail 2)

This is a detailed view of two walls of the Secret Garden. You see a woman in a purple wrap, a woman in a black tank top and skirt with blue and white paint accentuting her collarbone, and a younger woman wearing a pink sweatshirt with a plaid mini skirt.

Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden (Detail 1)

A darkened room with three walls. On each wall is projected video of six mulit-generational Black women standing and looking at the viewer. Behind and surrounding the women are a collage of cotton, purple flowers, and okra.

Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden

Standing in the open gallery space you see the text "Who are your/our people?" in front of you, with 8 black, brown, and green American flags lined up against the gallery window wall to your right.

Stephanie Dinkins: Complementary

Large gold text on a white wall that reads "Who are your peope?" The "our" in the word "your" is not filled in to change the reading to "Who are our people?"

Stephanie Dinkins: Complementary (Detail 1)

Eight standing flags anchored in place by sandbags. The flags are created to resemble the flags of the United States, but instead of the traditional red, white, and blue, the flags are in Black, Brown, and Green. The stripes of the flag are Green and Black. The stars are black and the background is brown.

Stephanie Dinkins: Complementary (Detail 2)

1/26

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view (outside)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view (outside)
Artist Stephanie Dinkins creates platforms for dialogue about artificial intelligence as it inter...
- Link to work »
2/26

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view (front door)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view (front door)
Through her work, Dinkins has become a central figure nationally and internationally recognized f...
- Link to work »
3/26

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Title wall and Afro-Now-Ism neon sign)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Title wall and Afro-Now-Ism neon sign)
Artist Stephanie Dinkins creates platforms for dialogue about artificial intelligence as it inter...
- Link to work »
4/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Afro-Now-Ism
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Afro-Now-Ism
“Afro-now-ism” is a manifesto that Dinkins developed and published in the NOEMA magazine after a ...
- Link to work »
5/26

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Lenticular print)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Lenticular print)
- Link to work »
6/26

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Lenticular print)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Lenticular print)
- Link to work »
7/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Say it Aloud
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Say it Aloud
#SayItAloud is an immersive installation that asks questions through the central character Profes...
- Link to work »
8/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Say it Aloud (Recording Booth)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Say it Aloud (Recording Booth)
Artist Stephanie Dinkins asks “How do we rediscover ourselves anew? Can headstrong self-determina...
- Link to work »
9/26

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess us)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess us)
Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess Us or BCAI is an app developed by Stephanie Dinikins...
- Link to work »
10/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess us (Voting Booth)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess us (Voting Booth)
At Stamps Gallery, users are invited to participate and test out the Binary Calculations Are Inad...
- Link to work »
11/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess us (Newspapers on Voting Booth)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess us (Newspapers on Voting Booth)
Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess Us or BCAI is an app developed by Stephanie Dinikins...
- Link to work »
12/26

Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (What does AI need from You?)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: On Love and Data: Exhibition installation view. (What does AI need from You?)
What does AI need from You?
- Link to work »
13/26

Stephanie Dinkins: A ______ Woman Smiling
i
Stephanie Dinkins: A ______ Woman Smiling
These images were created using a text to image General Adversarial Network (GAN) and are a resul...
- Link to work »
14/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Conversations with Bina48 Fragments 7, 6, 5, 2
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Conversations with Bina48 Fragments 7, 6, 5, 2
Can an artist and a social robot build a relationship over time? In the ongoing Conversations wit...
- Link to work »
15/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Untitled 1
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Untitled 1
Part of the Not The Only One (N'TOO) series.
- Link to work »
16/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Untitled 2
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Untitled 2
Part of the Not The Only One (N'TOO) series.
- Link to work »
17/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Untitled 3
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Untitled 3
Part of the Not The Only One (N'TOO) series.
- Link to work »
18/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Not the Only One V1. Beta 2
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Not the Only One V1. Beta 2
Not The Only One (N'TOO) is an ongoing experiment. It is an attempt to create a multigenerational...
- Link to work »
19/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden
Secret Garden is an immersive installation and web experience, illuminating the power and resilie...
- Link to work »
20/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden (Detail 2)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden (Detail 2)
As visitors move about the space they encounter women with stories to tell: surviving a slave boa...
- Link to work »
21/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden (Detail 1)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden (Detail 1)
Secret Garden is an immersive installation and web experience, illuminating the power and resilie...
- Link to work »
22/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Secret Garden
Secret Garden was commissioned by the Onassis Foundation Eureka Commissions, and first presented ...
- Link to work »
23/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Complementary
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Complementary
These flags symbolize the diverse voices and experiences that make up the American nation. She ha...
- Link to work »
24/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Complementary (Detail 1)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Complementary (Detail 1)
Dinkins invites visitors to respond to “who are “their/ our” community and what are the most urge...
- Link to work »
25/26

Stephanie Dinkins: Complementary (Detail 2)
i
Stephanie Dinkins: Complementary (Detail 2)
In Complementary, Dinkins creates an installation with 8 flags that look like the Star-Spangled B...
- Link to work »