Threads of Assumption: The Biases You Weave

What is your normal? Threads of Assumption: the Biases You Weave is an interactive performance and installation by artists Maria Finkelmeier, Sofie Hodara, U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo, and Martha Rettig. The work responds to real stories about experienced bias, gathered on a virtual, anonymous conversation platform and analyzed by natural language processing artificial intelligence (AI). The resulting exhibition is a visual, sonic, and tactile representation of human truths and errors. The project asks us to reconsider our assumptions surrounding bias and what we accept as normal. How can we expect machines to extract meaning from what we don’t understand?

Over the past 3 months, stories surrounding gender bias were collected from 22 conversations between two individuals. Each conversation was analyzed for emotional content and thematic language and transformed, by AI, into datasets. For the artists, the concept of weaving this rigid data and the human experience became essential at every turn, similar to the way tactile weavings are made, with a tense warp and threaded weft.

The exhibition is centered around an interactive, room-scale loom, while hanging weavings, spoken word poetry, projections, and original musical composition will allow attendees to learn about and reflect upon the gathered data.

The interactive installation takes place at the Goethe-Institut Boston as part of its Studio 170 open studio residencies and is open Thursday, June 24, through Sunday, June 27, with live music and poetry performances on Thursday and Saturday. Attendees are invited to explore the space, share their own stories, and engage with the artists on site, adding their interpretation of normal into the art. RSVP to the performances is encouraged, but not required.