Samson Young's AI-driven Pavilion installation reimagines technological optimism at New Taipei City Art Museum

Samson Young, a Hong Kong-based artist, has launched a video installation called Pavilion (2025) at the New Taipei City Art Museum. This work challenges the optimistic views on technology from the past. It takes cues from the famous 1964 IBM pavilion film THINK by Charles and Ray Eames, which celebrated tech progress. Young’s piece uses seven Omnimax-style screens to show AI-generated images that interrogate human creativity. The visuals feature warped images of ski slopes, sports arenas, and spacecraft, echoing Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. With choral music from the Taipei Male Choir, it contemplates the decline of faith in technology. Another installation, Variations of 96 chords in space (2023), explores music and chance. The exhibition runs until January 4 and will appear in ArtReview Asia's Winter 2025 issue.