Poisoning Artificial Intelligence: Contemporary Fashion and Jewelry activism against surveillance

Abstract

Over the past decade, the proliferation of electronic devices, wearables, and information tech-nology has enabled the collection and extraction of vast amounts of personal and behavioural data, penetrating our physical nature until biological. We are witnessing the gradual transfor-mation of data mining into life mining. The big data collected feeds machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence systems, which effectively implement real-time surveillance of our lives, mainly for commercial purposes. Starting from theoretical reflections on the human and non-hu-man component inside AI, the essay identifies some projects by fashion and jewellery designers that subvert the ubiquitous surveillance system, acting concretely in specific processual and technological dynamics. By supporting a disruptive approach, the essay seeks to chart new spa-ces of design thinking that disobey or begin to question the prevailing logic involved in AI on our bodies.

Keywords

• artificial intelligence
• fashion activism
• contemporary jewellery
• bodily datification
• disruptive design