Abstract
This study explores the symbolic meanings of the term “bug” in computer science since 1947, when a real moth was found stuck in the relay of the Harvard University Mark II computer. This accidental death, the moth’s encounter with one of the earliest human intelligence systems, reveals entangled histories of how nonhuman species have continually disrupted human-centered narratives of control and mastery over nature. I then turn to how contemporary technologies such as 3D scanning and machine learning have reshaped our perception of the environment, creating simulated versions of nature that we can no longer directly connect with. Finally, I discuss my artistic practice through a sound and video installation and an experimental moving-image work. Combining AI-generated voices, on-site recordings, and 3D scans of the environment, these works reimagine the moth’s disrupted navigation misled by urban lights and glass traps as an ecological error born of human design. Moving between the sensory and the technological, the project asks whether ecological intelligences have been abandoned or re-coded through algorithm, and how disoriented movements might be transformed into alternative narratives of memory, loss, and renewal in the age of machines.
Presenters
Beile HuStudent, Master of Fine Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
New Media, Technology and the Arts
KEYWORDS
BUG, ALGORITHM, ECOLOGY, MEMORY, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, VIDEO SOUND INSTALLATION
