AV Performance
DJ and 3D Artist VAJ Power comes together with artist and creative technologist Jake Elwes to create a unique collaboration and AV Performance for Present Futures Digital.
Jake’s video work ‘Zizi - Queering the Dataset’ aims to tackle the lack of representation and diversity in the training datasets often used by facial recognition systems. The video was made by disrupting these systems and re-training them with the addition of drag and gender fluid faces found online. This causes the weights inside the neural network to shift away from the normative identities it was originally trained on and into a space of queerness. ‘Zizi - Queering The Dataset’ lets us peek inside the machine learning system and visualise what the neural network has (and hasn’t) learnt. The work is a celebration of difference and ambiguity, which invites us to reflect on bias in our data driven society.
In this collaboration VAJ Power will create an AV Performance utilising Jake’s video work alongside a selection of music showcasing queer artists.
About Jake Elwes:
Jake is an artist living and working in London. His recent works have looked at machine learning and artificial intelligence research, exploring the code, philosophy and ethics behind it. In his art Jake engages with both the history and tropes of fine art and the possibilities and consequences of digital technology. He graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art (UCL), London in 2017.
Jake's work has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally, including the ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; TANK Museum, Shanghai; Today Art Museum, Beijing; CyFest, Venice; Edinburgh Futures Institute, UK; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany; New Contemporaries 2017, UK; Ars Electronica 2017, Austria; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; LABoral Centro, Spain; Nature Morte, Delhi, India, Centre for the Future of Intelligence, UK and he has been featured on BBC4.
About VAJ.Power:
VAJ.Power (they/them), formerly a tandem, is an alias of DJ, Promoter and Booking agent hailing from Moscow and currently based in Glasgow. Their practice started in early 2016 from the love for both music and visual art, which led them to pursue VJ practice, but it was inevitable they would also end up behind the decks.
Featured as one of the artists to look out for by Mixmag, as well as given the platform at Mixmag Impact series, they love to create an immersive experience musically and visually, with the focus on dark 140bpm-driven atmosphere, mixing it up with upbeat club sound and experimental electronics . VAJ.Power has been featured in numerous articles, discussing such subjects as accessibility in relation to club spaces, queer and womxn representation in the UK bass scene and ethics behind their projects.
Their night FUSE and the booking agency of the same name aims to bring together visual artists, musicians and DJs, to collaborate and create audio-visual performances in the safe and encouraging environment. Previously they have welcomed such guests as Sicaria Sound, L U C Y, Shy One, CATNAPP & ZHA to their club nights, as well as supported the likes of SHERELLE, Yazzus, Proc Fiscal and Inkke to name the few. VAJ.Power are also hosts of DJ / VJ / 3D animation workshops that allow people to start their own AV practice.
AV Performance
DJ and 3D Artist VAJ Power comes together with artist and creative technologist Jake Elwes to create a unique collaboration and AV Performance for Present Futures Digital.
Jake’s video work ‘Zizi - Queering the Dataset’ aims to tackle the lack of representation and diversity in the training datasets often used by facial recognition systems. The video was made by disrupting these systems and re-training them with the addition of drag and gender fluid faces found online. This causes the weights inside the neural network to shift away from the normative identities it was originally trained on and into a space of queerness. ‘Zizi - Queering The Dataset’ lets us peek inside the machine learning system and visualise what the neural network has (and hasn’t) learnt. The work is a celebration of difference and ambiguity, which invites us to reflect on bias in our data driven society.
In this collaboration VAJ Power will create an AV Performance utilising Jake’s video work alongside a selection of music showcasing queer artists.
About Jake Elwes:
Jake is an artist living and working in London. His recent works have looked at machine learning and artificial intelligence research, exploring the code, philosophy and ethics behind it. In his art Jake engages with both the history and tropes of fine art and the possibilities and consequences of digital technology. He graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art (UCL), London in 2017.
Jake's work has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally, including the ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; TANK Museum, Shanghai; Today Art Museum, Beijing; CyFest, Venice; Edinburgh Futures Institute, UK; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany; New Contemporaries 2017, UK; Ars Electronica 2017, Austria; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; LABoral Centro, Spain; Nature Morte, Delhi, India, Centre for the Future of Intelligence, UK and he has been featured on BBC4.
About VAJ.Power:
VAJ.Power (they/them), formerly a tandem, is an alias of DJ, Promoter and Booking agent hailing from Moscow and currently based in Glasgow. Their practice started in early 2016 from the love for both music and visual art, which led them to pursue VJ practice, but it was inevitable they would also end up behind the decks.
Featured as one of the artists to look out for by Mixmag, as well as given the platform at Mixmag Impact series, they love to create an immersive experience musically and visually, with the focus on dark 140bpm-driven atmosphere, mixing it up with upbeat club sound and experimental electronics . VAJ.Power has been featured in numerous articles, discussing such subjects as accessibility in relation to club spaces, queer and womxn representation in the UK bass scene and ethics behind their projects.
Their night FUSE and the booking agency of the same name aims to bring together visual artists, musicians and DJs, to collaborate and create audio-visual performances in the safe and encouraging environment. Previously they have welcomed such guests as Sicaria Sound, L U C Y, Shy One, CATNAPP & ZHA to their club nights, as well as supported the likes of SHERELLE, Yazzus, Proc Fiscal and Inkke to name the few. VAJ.Power are also hosts of DJ / VJ / 3D animation workshops that allow people to start their own AV practice.