Amid exponential advances in digital technology, the whole world is currently gripped by fear that in the very near future, generative AI will completely change the facets of our society, our environment, and even our own minds. In particular, it seems that with the proliferation of social media and other digital technology, Japan is heading straight toward a politically correct, one-size-fits-all, mediocre society that is merely defined by a lack of mistakes or flaws.
It is true that generative AI gives the answer with the least error derived from the synthesis of existing data, and we tend to perceive that as the “correct” answer. However, if we continue down that path, what awaits us is a society in which humans defer to generative AI and it, rather than humans, is the subject.

Nonetheless, Japan has a history with the concept of ma or “in-between space.” Beyond its literal meaning of a gap or interval, ma originally referred to the tension contained in the responses (dialogue) between two things and the concept of that tension potentially behaving as an imaginary subject.

If we follow that tradition, it may be worth taking a chance on predicating the imaginary “in between”, “dialogue” between humans and generative AI, rather than one or the other, as the subject, and putting such an attempt into practice is precisely what is proposed by the theme of the exhibition. Humans make mistakes, but so does generative AI. Perhaps, interactions between those mistakes will give birth to original “creation” belonging neither to humans nor to AI. The idea is to try establishing productive ways of interacting with generative AI while it is still in its earliest stage and to apply them to directing its future evolution.

The Japan Pavilion itself will be the target of such an effort. Multiple components of the pavilion will be placed under the influence of generative AI, and the Japan Pavilion will be both fictionally and actually “renovated” through the strained dialogue with it as an attempt to reveal subjectivity “in between” humans and generative AI.

Jun Aoki