Sentient Currents at the bomb factory – 99 Kingsway – 3rd of April to the 4th of may – open from 1:00 to 6:00 PM – visible from the street

Usually, I have mixed feelings about AI and art. I was deeply underwhelmed by the AI work at the Cluster fair the other weekend. But I’m not against AI art per se. In fact, I’m currently writing about AI and creativity for a forthcoming publication. But controversial it certainly is.

The other day, esteemed critic Jerry Saltz wrote on Instagram:

‘AI art is mostly bad. Some day there will be a Francis Bacon of it … Right now AI art is mostly imitative, cliched, unoriginal, romantic, and fantasy sci-fi filled with glitches, etc. Maybe it’s because AI is learning from all this other mediocre AI art that it’s being trained on.’

I cannot argue with most of that.

Then Salz threw down a challenge:

‘How would you typify or describe the look of AI art now?

 I posted two artists using AI that I really like: Petr Válek and Guli Silberstein. I could have mentioned Marwan Elgamal, who uses AI as a stage to produce his exquisite fine oil paintings and compelling video art. All of them were already amazing artists before they ever heard of AI.

 ‘The problem with AI art is it can say anything but not something’

Jerry Salz, Instagram 23.4.25

SDNA’s new exhibition confounds Salz’s claim – but only inasmuch as the tiny handful of true artists can – by being great artists who know how to use AI to do something fascinating and otherwise unachievable. (As opposed to the sink of AI mediocrity the rest of us swill around in, making memes and other nonsense for social media feeds.)

SDNA (the creative partnership of video artists Valentina Floris and Ben Foot) have created Sentient Currents, an immersive installation at the Bomb Factory in Kingsway, Holborn. The exhibition investigates the relationship between organic and artificial intelligence, addressing a variety of themes and ideas such as aesthetics, notions of the grotesque and horror, as well as questions about obsolescence and the expanding bounds of human cognitive ability.

Sentient Currents transports the viewer into an entrancing but frankly creepy realm where a spiderweb of discarded fluorescent tubes is manipulated by high-voltage sound frequencies that pulse in unpredictable rhythms. Behind this web of technological debris there is a large moving projection of insect-like creatures. What are they? – micro-photographic images of genuine parasites that will undoubtedly inherit the world once we have ruined it? Or fantastically-generated AI creations inspired by our darkest terror dreams?

Seductive horror creatures lurk in heavenly lightboxes

More of these bizarre creatures created by artificial intelligence crouch in lightboxes, their twisted organic features glitching and evolving. Are they visions of future life forms or just digital phantoms? Creepy but undeniably beautiful, these macabre images float between life and impossible, appearing both attractive and repellent.

Here, the artificial is indistinguishable from the organic. It is the horror dream as a live entity, manufactured artificially yet drawn from the world’s storehouse of scientific photos. While this work by SDNA forces us to think, it does so seductively. Weird, challenging and compelling. It’s by far the most engaging exhibition of AI on show in London at the moment.

SDNA, a creative agency started in 2010, specialises in creating unique digital artworks and interactive experiences. Their LED creations, which address topics such as anthropology, natural history, and climate change, frequently using archetypal or mythological motifs, have been displayed around the world. Their interdisciplinary approach aims to broaden the reach and accessibility of digital art by engaging and exciting a varied audience through daring and imaginative displays. Some of their many partnerships include the National History Museum, the British Council, and the Francis Crick Institute. They collaborate in the arts and sciences to create interesting content that people of all ages and backgrounds may enjoy.

@sdna.tv

@jerrysalz

images by THEARTRAVELLER artwork by SDNA all rights reserved.