Image Zones w/ K Allado-McDowell

Images before AI were generally sources of stable meaning. Today, every image we encounter demands effortful scrutiny. Is this real or generated? What’s beneath that redaction bar? The photographic image, which once constituted evidence, now threatens to destabilize history, politics, even cosmology. Image Zone explores the ways that contemporary images radiate and perturb meaning, mapping several image “zones”, from generative AI to geospatial and medical imaging, to UFOs and psychedelic visions. Each of these zones reshapes our reality and requires our active participation. The wildly contradictory nature of images today cannot be parsed through a single framing. Rather than forcing us into passivity, this newly revealed complex image space is an invitation to critical thought. What will our sources of stability be in a post-AI media landscape? — K Allado-McDowell is a writer, artist, musician, and a pioneering figure in the field of AI literature. Since 2020, they have authored several books with GPT-3, co-edited and contributed to multiple anthologies, and regularly publish essays on art, AI, and ecology. K established the Artists + Machine Intelligence program at Google in 2015. They created the neuro-opera Song of the Ambassadors, which previewed at Lincoln Center in 2022. Their first solo exhibition, The Known Lost, was presented at Swiss Institute in NYC in 2025. K has spoken at TED, The Long Now Foundation, New Museum, Tate, Serpentine Gallery, HKW, Moderna Museet, Christie’s, MacArthur Foundation, MfN Berlin, Ars Electronica, Sónar, and many other venues, and has taught at SCI-Arc, Strelka, and IAAC. — ​​​tiat ​is the intersection of art and technology! we are a 501c3 nonprofit for creative technologists to experiment, exhibit, and expand their practice. ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ​​​​we currently have our own space in Union Square, come see the gallery and come to more art & tech events https://luma.com/tiat ​​​​tiat website: https://tiat.place/ ​​​​tiat ig: https://www.instagram.com/tiat.place