Tiago Aragona and Matias Piña
Artificial Us
From the silver fleets of the Spanish conquest to todayʼs server farms, the Global South has long supplied the raw inputs that power global technological change. Still, it remains at the bottom in terms of the distribution of value. In this paper, we delve into the concept and development of an art installation that addresses neo-extractivism, with a focus on modern technologies.
Today not only are raw resources extracted, but peopleʼs data and labor are used to produce generative AI systems. Drawing on decolonial theory, policy analysis, art, and hands-on experience, we show how the same colonial logic that once justified territorial expansion now legitimizes the takeover of natural resources, data, and labor. We explore the way this asymmetry materializes in generative AI models that filter out Latin America's culture and aesthetics as noise. Geographies, cultures, and people are excluded and misrepresented, while their resources keep the infrastructure up and running.
We challenge these patterns by presenting Artificial Us, an installation that offers an alternative approach. Employing fine-tuned image generation models, the piece renders outputs as immersive 3D scenes navigated through body tracking. Artificial Us reclaims AI, exposes the material footprint behind it, and invites users to recognize both their complicity and their agency in the functioning of extractive cyclical systems.
