Be A Global Citizen: Proof of Place in an AI Generated World

Hosted by

• Medialab Midwest

About

Enter the installation, and with a few taps, a digital passport loads on your phone, no app and no login, and a system takes you on a world tour. Your photograph goes into a generative pipeline and comes back as a portrait in one of nine countries, each paired with a corporate ad that shaped how the world imagines it. You leave with a stamped passport and your face in fake places without having ever left the building, and the artists ask you what is real, where is real, who is real, and what really matters. The digital experience concludes with a guide to neighborhood cafés and restaurants, all owned and operated by real Grand Rapidians. The same NFC infrastructure that delivered the fake global tour now leads you to real places to gather more stamps, no purchase required. The corporations give you spectacle and a laugh. The neighborhood gives you a barista who knows your order and a register that pays rent in the same zip code. That reversal is the argument the installation is making, and it runs on the same technology. The event features talks by Ritsu Katsumata on the concept origin and the experience architecture, and Aaron Sundman on the NFC identity layer, proof of place, and the generative pipeline behind the portraits. Michele Bosak speaks on Landscape, Apparently, the exhibition that treats landscape as both entry point and provocation and asks what that imagery can hold, and what cultural desires it continues to reflect. She will lead a curator’s tour of the gallery for anyone who wants to stay.