Pierre Huyghe uses machine learning and fMRI scans for MoMA sculpture garden installation
Pierre Huyghe's installation 'UUmwelt' at MoMA's Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden employs machine learning and fMRI scans to visualize human thoughts from a nonhuman perspective. Working with neuroscientists in Kyoto, Japan, a human subject imagined images while an fMRI scanner recorded brain activity. An artificial neural network then generated thousands of visual interpretations from the scan data, producing hallucinatory and fragmentary mental images that reveal the neural network's processing.
Key facts
- Pierre Huyghe created the installation 'UUmwelt'
- The work is presented on freestanding screens in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden at MoMA
- It uses machine learning and fMRI scans to explore nonhuman visualization of human thoughts
- A team of neuroscientists in Kyoto, Japan collaborated on the project
- A human subject imagined images while an fMRI scanner recorded brain activity
- An artificial neural network generated thousands of visual interpretations from the fMRI data
- The resulting images are described as hallucinatory and fragmentary
- The work redefines how art engages with technology, human consciousness, and the natural environment
Entities
Artists
Institutions
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
- Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden
Locations
- New York City
- United States
- Kyoto
- Japan