AI to Replace Curators at Liverpool Biennial 2020

The Next Biennial Should be Curated by a Machine, a project exploring machine learning in curatorial practice, will debut at the Liverpool Biennial (July 11–October 25, 2020). Co-commissioned by the Liverpool Biennial and the Whitney Museum of New York (for its Artport portal), the experiment is a collaboration between artist duo UBERMORGEN (lizvlx and Hans Bernhard), digital humanities expert Leonardo Impett, and curator Joasia Krysa. The title references e-flux's 2003 project The Next Documenta Should Be Curated by an Artist by Jens Hoffmann. The AI will be trained on a sketch for the 2020 Biennial (curated by Manuela Moscoso, artistic director Fatoş Üstek, and team) and on data submitted via an open call (texts, images, diagrams, videos, audio, contracts, budgets, etc.) at data.biennial.ai. Submissions can be anonymous and will not be published. The project aims to generate curatorial propositions and versions of the Biennial, questioning what a major exhibition would look like if machines handled the vast art-world data beyond human capacity.