Poisoning Artificial Intelligence: Contemporary Fashion and Jewelry activism against surveillance

Abstract

 Over the past decade, the proliferation of electronic devices, wearables, and information technology 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 transformation 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-human 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 spaces of design thinking that disobey or begin to question the prevailing logic involved in AI on our bodies.