Ecology of Worries is a projection-mapped animation of variously evolved critters that are driven to speak by machine learning algorithms trained on actual human worries. The creatures’ performance of the worries spans a gradient of intelligibility, reflecting on the evolution of machine learning systems. The project asks the question of whether we should teach a machine to worry for us. The animated characters are also representations of our collective worries, given life and evolved through evolving algorithms. Some are driven by TextGenRnn neural network trained on our collected worries archive. Others are driven to worry by a novel machine learning system called Generative Pretrained Transformer 2 (GPT-2), which was originally dubbed by commentators as the AI that was too dangerous to release (but it was released anyway). The resulting manifestations of the algorithms are presented as a hand-drawn audiovisual bestiary.

Our Worries Bash project led us to amass an archive of over a thousand recorded worries from people in the US and abroad. The emotionalization of events by the media is engendering worries that swirl inside us, trapping us in manufactured anxieties. We have been asking people in our communities what they are worried about and find they have a plethora of concerns at the ready. This process is an opportunity to collect various types of worries and consider similarities in emotional cycles across communities. The public is invited to record worries anonymously at https://worries.io and these are being continuously incorporated into the Ecology of Worries.

Photos courtesy of the artists

About the artist: Caitlin & Misha began working collaboratively in 2010 when they were part of a group of artists called the DS Institute (Disaster Solutions Institute) at Syracuse University where they both received MFAs. Caitlin Foley (b. Schenectady, NY USA) has a BAFA in printmaking from Alfred University and experience as an arts administrator developing K–12 arts education programs, serving on an arts district development board, managing artist studio spaces, and working as an assistant director for a non-profit gallery. Misha Rabinovich (b. Moscow, Russia) has a BS in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer and industry experience as a software developer for corporate, non-profits, and start-up companies. Caitlin’s experience with community outreach at various arts organizations and Misha’s engagement with open source software communities is integral to their artistic interests in “sharing community”. They have been artists in residence at places such as NYC’s Flux Factory and Andrea Zittell’s Wagon Station Encampment in Joshua Tree, CA which have played a key role in shaping their artistic voice, creative network, and interest in social practice. They are full time faculty in the Department of Art & Design at UMass Lowell where Caitlin is a Visiting Faculty Lecturer in Foundations and Misha is an Assistant Professor of Interactive Media. These positions have enabled them to expand their collaborations into the realm of academic research and to develop teaching philosophies which support collective brainstorming and aim to build community in the classroom.