Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to cancel this event. Mirror Ritual is open to visit as part of our MENTAL exhibition until 18 June.
Mirror Ritual by Nina Rajcic and SensiLab (AU) in Science Gallery Melbourne's MENTAL, (Alan Weedon, 2021)
"Nearly every time I go in, she finds new and creative ways to insult me."
Science Gallery Melbourne mediator Connagh Redmond believes they are the mediator that Mirror Ritual hates the most.
Maybe it's AI, maybe it's shade - Let's find out as Connagh meets with Nina Rajcic, the creator of Mirror Ritual, for a Q&A session on the gallery floor. Mirror Ritual is quite a favourite among audiences and the mediators, and we along with Connagh have had some pretty interesting, funny and shady poetic sentences that the Mirror has composed through its AI brain. And now we get to hear from the brain behind the brain – Nina Rajcic.
Here's a bit about Mirror Ritual:
Don’t be fooled by appearances, this is no ordinary mirror. Once you’re alone together, the AI assesses your emotional state. Sometimes humans struggle to put their feeling into words. That’s never a problem for this AI. Based on how it perceives your emotions, it composes a tailored poem just for you. Some say that AI is taking over the world, but can it meaningfully connect with us? This mirror explores AIs ability to perceive human emotions and creates new ways to collaborate on our perception of our feelings. See what the machine reveals about you. BEWARE: sometimes it’s real shady for no reason.
Meet Nina Rajcic
Nina Rajcic is an artist, researcher and developer with a background in particle physics, as well as industry experience in data science and engineering. She is currently doing her PhD looking into machine understandings of human emotion. Her work focuses on the critical role that language takes in the framing and reframing of emotional experiences and memories. With Mirror Ritual she is experimenting with the development of a creative collaboration between humans and machines.
Nina is currently undertaking her PhD at SensiLab, Monash University. She holds a Bachelor's of Science, and a Masters of Physics (Theoretical Particle Physics) from The University of Melbourne.
About Connagh Redmond
When Connagh Redmond is not at Science Gallery, they are a PhD student at the University of Melbourne working on novel antimicrobials. They usually make BioArt but have been known to dabble in silly and fun machine learning algorithms. You can find them at clovermakesthings.com (and their bots at Unimelb Bot Letters on FB and @Sentientlookingfordates on instagram).