Artificial Intelligems: Post(?)-play speculations on co-creating more-than-human jewellery with machine learning

Abstract

This lecture explores the intersections of play, jewellery and AI through the lens of my research in the arts.

In my artistic practice—currently focused on co-creating jewellery with nonhuman others—I experience play as an essential and generative force, enabling ideas and works to emerge. But what does this mean exactly? When and where does play begin, or end?

Interestingly, jewellery and play share a historical and conceptual connection. As Marjan Unger notes, the word “jewel” is etymologically related to the Latin iocus, meaning “sketch”, “play” or “small diversion” (2010, 17). This suggests a fascinating possibility: what if we are able to wear play and carry it with us as an embodied intra-action (Karen Barad)?

With machine learning reshaping artistic processes, play takes on new significance. How does it function in a dialogue between human and nonhuman actors? What can we learn from playing-with intelligent machines?

Artificial Intelligems—a fluid collective I co-founded in 2020 with composer and artist Greg Scheirlinckx—operates at the intersection of jewellery, machine learning, graphic design, music, XR performance, dance, and data science. Through participatory projects involving over 100 collaborators and a machine learning algorithm, we explore more-than-human-centred design, phygital materialities, and hybrid jewellery.

In this lecture, I will reflect on the concept, roles, and methods of “play” in my research by examining a selection of performative Artificial Intelligems projects, such as Mirrored Dwellers and Ornamisms. By shifting dynamics of co-authorship, material intelligence, and speculative design, I aim to challenge human-centred narratives surrounding emerging technologies and position posthuman jewellery as a playing field for (re-)imagination, entangled agency, and learning.