By Biennale of Sydney
23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus
The Substitute (2019)Biennale of Sydney
About the participant
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
Born 1982 in London, United Kingdom
Lives and works in London
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is an artist examining our fraught relationships with nature and technology.
Through artworks, writing, and curatorial projects, Ginsberg’s work explores subjects as diverse as artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, conservation, and evolution, as she investigates the human impulse to ‘better’ the world.
The Substitute (2019)Biennale of Sydney
The Substitute, 2019
The Substitute asks why humans obsess over creating new life forms, while neglecting existing ones. In 2019, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg created the artwork following the death of the last male northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), named Sudan.
The Cutaway at Barangaroo (2022) by Document PhotographyBiennale of Sydney
This subspecies of rhino roamed the grasslands and savannah woodlands of countries in East and Central Africa since the early Pleistocene period (over 2.5 million years ago) and when Sudan passed, there was a media frenzy around the world.
The Substitute (2019)Biennale of Sydney
Ginsberg digitally resurrected a life-size northern white rhino, isolated in a white room. The rhino, an artificial agent begins its life as disparate pixels unaware of its surroundings.
What is AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer, or a robot controlled by a computer, to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence—such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.
The Substitute (2019)Biennale of Sydney
Informed by an experiment by cutting-edge AI research at DeepMind, the digital rhino becomes fully formed as he finds his way around the enclosed space. Finally, the rhino looks us in the eye, before disappearing.
The Cutaway at Barangaroo (2022) by Document PhotographyBiennale of Sydney
Today there only remain two northern white rhinos in the world, Sudan’s daughter, Najin and granddaughter, Fatu. Scientists hope to create new northern white rhinos from collected sperm and eggs, using endangered southern white rhinos as surrogate mothers.
The Substitute (2019)Biennale of Sydney
‘We briefly mourned a subspecies that humans have hunted to extinction,
while being comforted with the hope humans may bring it back.'
'But why would humans protect a resurrected rhino more than its ancestors? Isolated from its kin and its natural habitat, would this new rhino be a “real” northern white, or would it just look like one?’ —Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
Tap to explore
Navigate through The Cutaway and explore Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg's The Substitute, 2019.
Being With: AI – Dr Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (2022) by Dr Alexandra Daisy GinsbergBiennale of Sydney
Podcast | Being With: AI
Listen to Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg in conversation with Lleah Smith, Curator, Programs and Learning, in the 23rd Biennale of Sydney podcast, Being With. Being With discusses ancestral and futuristic knowledge systems and cultural practices as tools for understanding.
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