Data as Culture - Art that uses data as a material

‘Constant Washing Machine’ is by award-winning artists Blast Theory. On the premise that people who work with AI can employ consistent, everyday good practice in the responsible use of AI (RAI) through habit, Blast Theory proposes the simple human activity of washing and soap as a metaphor. Eight soap bars are embossed with key words and phrases associated with ‘Responsible AI’, to feature in a photography series and a performance. Provoking human-centred habits, hygiene, and exchange in Responsible AI development, ‘Constant Washing Machine’ acts as a tangible and practical daily reminder for organisations to implement and manage their Responsible AI process and practice. It has been commissioned by Data as Culture at the ODI as part of the University of Sheffield FRAIM project.

Blast Theory are artists in residence, embedded within the University of Sheffield’s national research project FRAIM: Framing Responsible AI Implementation & Management. The artist’s residency is curated by Data as Culture at the Open Data Institute for FRAIM, a Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) scoping project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project partners are; The British Library, Eviden, Sheffield City Council and Open Data Institute (ODI). The wider aims of the project are to reshape views of ‘Responsible AI’ from simplistic solutions to dynamic processes and conversations, inviting everyone to consider their role in using and working with AI.

The words and phrases are:

Practice | Iteration | Data is the feedstock of AI | Inclusion | Shared understanding | Context | Care | Transparency

‘Constant Washing Machine’ responds to and reflects the complex web of ideas, perspectives, and people at the heart of ‘Responsible AI’ (RAI) practice. Blast Theory uses the metaphor of soap as a way to understand this because of its intimacy. We touch it to our bodies and spread it over the surface of our skin, and it is a social and everyday product when we share bars of soap with others. Multiple metaphors for using soap exist; we ‘wash our hands’ of something, we ‘greenwash’ things, we ‘clean the house’, we appear ‘squeaky clean’, and we ‘get ourselves in a lather’. These metaphors are a way to entwine the body and ethics into good RAI practice and can speak to otherwise slippery behaviour and slippery meanings. A call to those working within AI to commit to critical practices, it also acts as an accessible provocation to inspire national conversation.

Curator Hannah Redler-Hawes, Director of Data as Culture at the ODI said: “We were delighted to find project partners who share our belief in the essential thinking that art and artists bring to emerging data and AI ecosystems. Working across sectors with FRAIM has reinforced my view that AI can more accurately be thought about as a series of cultural shifts rather than simply a wave of technical innovations. Artists bring unique perspectives, and questions in relation to how we shape technologies and how they shape us. AI requires interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration. We hope ‘Constant Washing Machine’ helps more people understand what is meant by ‘Responsible AI’ and inspires them to think very deeply around the subject of ‘Responsible AI’ as a personal and collective activity.”

A key concern of the FRAIM project is how ordinary people and everyday human behaviour shape AI’s positive and negative impacts. ‘Constant Washing Machine’ highlights the individuals and human beings working to shape and embed RAI in practice. The eight words and phrases that are embossed into the soap bars were selected as significant by the artists from suggestions proposed by FRAIM collaborators. The photographs will be portraits of each of the researchers with their selected key word or phrase.

By using this everyday human activity and material as metaphor, Blast Theory propose that the way forward with RAI is to move from ‘thinking’ into ‘doing’ as AI becomes part of our everyday lives. The artistic concept explores the nature of language, the slippery definitions of key terms in AI policies, and the role of organisational culture and daily conduct in forming ‘Responsible AI’ practices. The intention is that over time, the language will be wiped away as the soap is used, but the ‘Responsible AI’ habits will remain.