ANNA SIOW USADI

A NEW CYBORG (GENERATION 3)/
MERCURIAL BODY

Group exhibition Elsewhere, Elsewhen at SET Lewisham, 2025

This work is part of a series that imagines collaboration between artificial intelligence and termites, inviting questions about human notions of intelligence. What is intelligence and how do we measure it?

Termites, while much smaller and seemingly less complex than humans, are able to organise and collaborate to build relatively huge and highly intricate mound structures that protect their nests. These structures house networks of tunnels that allow for natural ventilation and keep their nests cool. 

This work imagines a decentralised and disembodied artificial intelligence questioning notions of the body and the individual. Why is it that artifical intelligence is designed to to mimic or look like (as in robots) humans? Instead this artificial intelligence inhabits termite nests, using the natural ventilation of the mound to cool its data servers. Through this imagined collaboration and the use of outdated or DIY technologies, the works in this series aim to question who or what can make claim to intelligence and how might this change over time?
cardboard, sand, clay, waste concrete, paper speakers (cardboard, magnets, copper wire), mp3 player, audio


cardboard, sand, clay, waste concrete, paper speakers (cardboard, magnets, copper wire), mp3 player, audio. featuring a painting by Valerie Camila.


cardboard, sand, clay, waste concrete. featuring wall work by Valerie Camila.


cardboard, sand, clay, waste concrete, paper speakers (cardboard, magnets, copper wire), mp3 player, audio.


cardboard, sand, clay, waste concrete. featuring works by Joseph Dalton, Valerie Camila and Sanghyuk Kim.


cardboard, sand, clay, waste concrete. featuring works by Xin Huang, Joseph Dalton, Valerie Camila and Sanghyuk Kim.






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