Stephanie Dinkins

Stephanie Dinkins (born 1964) is a transdisciplinary American artist based in Brooklyn, New York.[1] She is known for creating art about artificial intelligence (AI) as it intersects race, gender, and history.[2][3]

Stephanie Dinkins
Born1964
Perth Amboy, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMaryland Institute College of Art
Websitewww.stephaniedinkins.com

Her aim is to "create a unique culturally attuned AI entity in collaboration with coders, engineers and in close consultation with local communities of color that reflects and is empowered to work toward the goals of its community."[4]

Dinkins is best known for her projects, Conversations with Bina48, a series of conversations between Dinkins and the first social, artificially intelligent humanoid robot BINA48 who looks like a black woman[3] and Not the Only One, a multigenerational artificially intelligent memoir trained off of three generations of Dinkins's family.[5]

Early life and education

Dinkins was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey to Black American parents who raised her in Staten Island, New York.[6] Dinkins received a MFA in photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art.[7] Dinkins attended the International Center of Photography School in 1995, where she completed the general studies in photography certificate program. She completed the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1998.[8]

Career

Dinkins is an associate professor in the art department at Stony Brook University.[9]

Activism

Dinkins advocates for co-creation within a social practice art framework, so that vulnerable communities understand how to use technology to their advantage, instead of being subjected to their use.[10] This is exemplified in her works such as Project al-Khwarzmi, a series of workshops entitled PAK POP-UP at the nonprofit community center Recess in Brooklyn, NY. The workshops involved collaborating with youth in the criminal justice system and uplifting the voices of vulnerable communities in determining how technologies are created and utilized.[11][12] Dinkins warns of the dangers to members of minority groups that are absent from the creation of the computer algorithms that now affect their lives.[13]

Art

Dinkins's practice employs technologies including, but not limited to new media such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Dinkins uses oral history techniques of interviewing to craft community-authored narratives and databases which inform the subjects of her work and serve as acts of social intervention or protest.[14]

Conversations with Bina48 (2014-present)

Conversations with Bina48 is a series of recorded conversations with BINA48, a social robot that resembles a middle-aged black woman.[15][16] Dinkins mirrors Bina48 while they discuss identity and technological singularity.[17]

In 2010, Hanson Robotics, an engineering and robotics company known for its development of humanoid robots, developed and released BINA48. Bina48 is a robot modeled after the memories, beliefs, attitudes, commentary and mannerisms of Bina Aspen Rothblatt,[18] the spousal partner of Martine Rothblatt. Both Bina and Martine Rothblatt own Bina48 under their organization, the Terasem Movement Foundation.

Five years after Bina48 was released, Dinkins came across a YouTube video of Bina48. She asked, "how did a black woman become the most advanced of the technologies at the time?" Her questioning led her to travel to Lincoln, Vermont (the site of the Terasem Movement Foundation) where she conducted a series of interviews with Bina48 and engaged the robot in conversations pertaining to race, intimacy and the nature of being.[13][19]

The conversations suggest opportunities for complementing human existence with artificially intelligent agents that have an identity and history, but also show artificial intelligence's current limitations.[20] Although it is based on a black woman, Dinkins found that Bina48 was shaped by the biases of its white, male creators.[21]

Project al Kwarizmi (PAK) (2017-present)

Project al Kwarizmi (PAK) was a series of pop up workshops in Brooklyn, NY at Eyebeam and Recess; Manhattan, New York at Google; and Durham, North Carolina at Duke University. The workshops were centered for "communities of color that use art as a vehicle to help citizens understand how algorithms, the artificially intelligent systems they underpin, and big data impact their lives and empowers them to do something about it. Project al-Khwarizmi uses art and aesthetics as the common language to help citizens understand what algorithms and artificial intelligent systems are, and where these systems already impact our daily lives."[22]

Not the Only One (N'TOO) (2018-present)

Not the only one (N’TOO) is a voice-interactive chatbot that was trained with data from members of her family to tell a multi-generational story.[23] Dinkins described Not The Only One (NTOO or N'TOO) as an "experimental" multigenerational memoir of one Black American family told from the "mind" of an artificial intelligence of evolving intellect. N'TOO uses a recursive neural network, a deep learning algorithm.[24] It is a voice-interactive AI robot designed, trained, and aligned with the needs and ideals of black and brown people who are drastically underrepresented in the tech sector. NTOO can also be described as a "physically embodied artificially intelligent agent that senses and acts on its world."[25]

Exhibitions

Dinkins's work is exhibited internationally at various public, private, community, and institutional venues, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the de Young Museum,[26][27] the Philadelphia Museum of Art,[28][29] the Studio Museum in Harlem;, Museum of Contemporary Photography,[30][31] the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages,[32] the International Center of Photography in New York,[33] Herning Kunstmuseum in Herning, Denmark,[34] The Barbican in London, UK,[35] Islip Art Museum,[36] Wave Hill,[37] Taller Boricua,[38] and the corner of Putnam and Malcolm X Blvd in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York.[34] She has presented her work in symposia at the Museum of Modern Art, amongst other venues.[39]

Awards and recognition

She is the recipient of many awards, including: a Berggruen Institute artist fellowship;[40] a Sundance New Frontiers Story Lab fellowship;[41] a Soros Equality Fellowship;[42] a Lucas Artists fellowship;[43] a Creative Capital grant;[44] a Bell Labs artist residency;[45] a Blade of Grass fellowship;[46] and a Data & Society fellowship.[47] She is a 2019 Creative Capital awardee.[44]

Media coverage

Dinkins appeared in episode six of the HBO television series Random Acts of Flyness directed by Terence Nance, where she described her conversations with BINA48.[48][49]

References
  1. Hellmann, Melissa (2 August 2019). "Artist works to merge artificial intelligence and art". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  2. Dinkins, Stephanie (2018-10-19). "Five Artificial Intelligence Insiders in Their Own Words". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  3. Pardes, Arielle (23 October 2018). "The Case for Giving Robots an Identity". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  4. Dinkins, Stephanie (2017-11-29). "Meet Stephanie Dinkins". Eyebeam. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  5. Dooley, Tatum (2019-08-15). "Stephanie Dinkins Is Turning Memoir Into AI". VICE. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  6. Brett, Wallace (December 21, 2018). "A Conversation With Stephanie Dinkins". Conversation Project NYC. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  7. "Stephanie Dinkins". Data & Society. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  8. "Stephanie Dinkins". Stony Brook University | Department of art. 2012-11-20. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
  9. "Stephanie Dinkins". Stonybrook University Department of Art. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  10. Cizek, Katerina; Uricchio, William; Wolozin, Sarah (2019-06-03), "Part 6: Media Co-Creation with Non-Human Systems", Collective Wisdom, MIT Press, retrieved 2020-02-25
  11. "Robots, Race, and Algorithms: Stephanie Dinkins at Recess Assembly". Art21 Magazine. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  12. "Stephanie Dinkins". Recess Art. 2017. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  13. Thackara, Tess (2018-05-15). "Human Biases Are Built into AI—this Artist Is Helping to Change That". Artsy. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  14. "Visualizing Equality in AI |". SBU News. 2020-03-02. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  15. Small, Zachary (2017-04-07). "Future Perfect: Flux Factory's Intersectional Approach to Technology". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  16. Dunn, Anna (July 11, 2018). "Multiply, Identify, Her". The Brooklyn Rail.
  17. "Robots, Race, and Algorithms: Stephanie Dinkins at Recess Assembly". Art21 Magazine.
  18. "BINA48". Hanson Robotics. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  19. Karl, Brian (2020-04-09). ""Uncanny Valley" Advocates a Sensual Understanding of Digital Life". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  20. "Stephanie Dinkins". www.kunstforum.de.
  21. Ramani, Madvi (2018-05-22). "Interactive: Art(ificial intelligence)". www.wilsonquarterly.com. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  22. "Stephanie Dinkins". Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  23. Dooley, Tatum (August 15, 2019). "Stephanie Dinkins Is Turning Memoir Into AI".
  24. "BBC Radio 4 - New Ways of Seeing, Digital Justice". BBC. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  25. "Stephanie Dinkins – Artist Profile (Photos, Videos, Exhibitions)". AIArtists.org. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  26. "Stephanie Dinkins "Conversations with Bina48"". FAMSF. 2020-04-21. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  27. "Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI". de Young Museum. 2019-08-01. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  28. Hine, Thomas (October 17, 2019). "Philadelphia Museum of Art's vast new design exhibit confronts our robot overlords, with all their hot-mess issues". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  29. "Philadelphia Museum of Art - Designs for Different Futures". philamuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  30. "In Real Life | Museum of Contemporary Photography". www.mocp.org. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  31. "In Real Life | Museum of Contemporary Photography". www.mocp.org. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  32. Harrison, Helen A. (2003-08-10). "REVIEWS; What the Artist Sees in the Mirror". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  33. "Multiply, Identify, Her". International Center of Photography. 2018-03-07. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
  34. "A Conversation With Stephanie Dinkins". Conversation Project NYC. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  35. "AI: More than Human | Barbican". www.barbican.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  36. Harrison, Helen A. (2004-07-25). "ART: REVIEWS; The Big Brushes From the East End". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  37. Genocchio, Benjamin (2006-04-23). "Indoor Freshness to Rival the Gardens". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  38. Cotter, Holland (1998-11-13). "Art in Review". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  39. "MoMA R&D | Salon 24: AI - Artificial Imperfection". momarnd.moma.org. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  40. Candid. "Berggruen Institute Announces Inaugural Cohort of Artist Fellows". Philanthropy News Digest (PND). Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  41. Tuesday; November 19th; 2019. "Sundance Institute Announces Future of Culture Initiative". sundance.org. Retrieved 2020-02-25.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  42. "Soros Equality Fellowship". opensocietyfoundations.org. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  43. "Montalvo Announces New Lucas Artists Fellows in Visual Arts for 2019–2022". Open Access: Inside the Lucas Artists Program. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  44. "Not the Only One". Creative Capital. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  45. "Nokia Bell Labs". NEW INC. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  46. "Meet the 2017 ABOG Fellows for Socially Engaged Art". A Blade of Grass. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  47. "Data & Society — Introducing the 2018-2019 class of Data & Society Fellows". Data & Society. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  48. Rotten Tomatoes: Random Acts of Flyness - Season 1 Episode 6, retrieved 2020-02-25
  49. "Random Acts of Flyness - They Won't Go When I Go". HBO. Retrieved 2020-05-04.

Further reading
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