No One is There - Harvestworks, Governor's Island, New York.
Found objects, virtual objects, custom fine-tuned AI model, vintage TV, generative software.
A meticulous digitalization of objects at the end of their lifespan. An input-starved algorithm auto-dreams up new shapes, overwriting its own memory as it goes. Ephemeral representations of intrusively material trash-objects; material excess, data excess.
The entanglements of data-izing: objects as shapes and linguistic prompts yet possessing of a context that eludes the viewing subject, legible but not comprehensible, or the other way around. Objects entangled in flows of commodity, belonging, trash, data point.
Haunting, possession, intrusions from the unknown yet resonating with something hidden deep, the unseen agency, the presence in absence. The mirror breaks. There is no Inside except as a folding of the Outside. All of them are missing as the game comes to a start. No one is there.
No One is There utilizes a Point-E AI diffusion model fine-tuned on a set of 3D models based on discarded trash furniture I found on the streets of New York City
Throughout the show, the AI continuously generates new 3D objects, displayed on a vintage portable Watchman TV. When a new object is generated, the previous one is overwritten and deleted
The installation features a Unity 3D environment based on the Harvestworks building on Governor's Island, where virtual objects are randomly spawned and animated, and a selection of the original physical objects
No One is There was developed as part of the Harvestworks New Works residency in 2025. Thanks to Mario Peng Lee for technical assistance.