Keyword: Artificial Inteligence, Spatial Database, Spatial Modeling, Web Developement, Data Analysis
2024
Research
Exhibition
Role:Research/Design
Unboxed City: Critical Explorations of [AI] and Cities is an immersive installation that visualizes how generative AI algorithms perceive and reconstruct cities. Visitors step inside a large black box, a physical metaphor for the “black-box” nature of AI systems, to experience how data is collected, encoded, and decoded into artificial intelligence.
As AI increasingly shapes urban decision-making, the processes behind these algorithms remain opaque and biased, relying on incomplete or unequal datasets. The installation exposes how AI-generated urban knowledge often reflects what is available, satellite images, demographic data, climate information, rather than the nuances of real human experience.
At the center of the installation, a totemic structure with four screens plays synchronized, multi-directional videos simulating neural network processes, from data collection to pattern generation. The black reflective interior layers real and unreal imagery in an infinite loop, evoking the feeling of being inside an algorithm and questioning what counts as “reality” in AI-driven urbanism.
Unboxed City: Critical Explorations of [AI] and Cities was exhibited at the East Lobby of the MIT Media Lab.
The installation was open to the public from March 8, 2024, to May 6, 2024, inviting visitors, students, and researchers to step inside the “black box” and reflect on how artificial intelligence interprets urban life.
The experience exposes the bias embedded in artificial intelligence and highlights how incomplete and unequal datasets can leave much of the city unseen. It calls for integrating human-in-the-loop approaches into AI systems, ensuring they reflect diverse perspectives and community voices.