2026 CII Workshop (4-23 to 4-24-26)

In this talk, experimental musician and media artist Quran Karriem situates two recent artworks alongside theoretical understandings of artificial intelligence and human collectivity. A Timeline for the End of Time (2022) is a four-channel generative A/V installation that engages the recursivity of apocalyptic narratives (climate catastrophe, eschatology, political conspiracy, and technological singularity) and produces a continuous feed of algorithmically remixed content. Rather than depicting an end, the work performs recombinant stasis: time itself becomes a substrate for the reification of semi-automatic speculation and conspiracy. Complicating Elena Esposito’s concept of “artificial communication,” in which machines simulate interaction without understanding, Karriem argues that generative networked systems do not merely amplify misinformation: rather, they participate in the erosion of the very structure of temporal accountability by decoupling cause from consequence. In contrast, Enacting the Circle (2022; 2026) is a participatory performance developed for immersive audio environments. Participants enact a live, embodied process of co-creation in which their improvised gestures, interpersonal negotiations and shared intentions generate emergent sonic spaces through haptic feedback, gesture tracking techniques, and aural attunement exercises. Here, technology does not attempt to simulate or falsify consciousness; rather, it extends and facilitates a mode of intersubjective human becoming. Drawing on Sylvia Wynter’s sociogenic principle—that human consciousness emerges not from biology alone but from culturally mediated care networks—Enacting the Circle represents a manifestation of what Wynter calls “artificial kinship”: the mutual constitution of self and other through a shared approach to technics.

Quran M. Karriem is a musician, artist, and theorist concerned with the intertwined histories and futures of automation, race, and cultural production. His creative output encompasses live electronic and electro-acoustic music, physical and digital interface design, installation art, and technical design for theatre and dance. Past projects and performances include “synthball”, a custom-built, play-based wireless audio/video controller for participatory performance interactions; “a machine for grieving”, a work of audiovisual database art that memorializes those killed in fatal encounters with U.S. police; and “soundz in the back of my head”, a multimedia performance work incorporating gestural sound controllers worn by dancers for which Karriem was recognized for “Best Composition/Sound Design” by the New York Dance and Performance Awards. He has presented work at national and international venues such as Lobe Studio in Vancouver, the School voor Nieuwe Dansontwikkeling (SNDO) in Amsterdam, Gibney Dance in Manhattan, and Akademie der Künste in Berlin.

Dr. Karriem is an assistant professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, where he teaches practice/theory courses in electronic music, artificial intelligence, and media art. Recent published writing includes “Algorithmic Images and Recursive Epidermalization” (MIT Press, 2025), an artist feature in Experimental Practices in Interdisciplinary Art: Engaging the Margins (Brill, 2024), and “Machine Learning and Deep Remixability” (Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming). His book project, From Error to Event: Decision in the Age of Generative Aesthetics, intervenes in ‘posthuman' and ‘agentic’ discourses surrounding AI and other technical phenomena by re-framing automation as a form of deferred, intersubjective human cognition rather than as machine autonomy.

Thursday, April 23:

9:00       Welcome and goal setting (Jeff Grabill, Venu Govindaraju, Siwei Lyu and David Castillo)

9:30       “AI-Ready Learning,” Angela Thering, Instructional Consultant for AI, Office of Curriculum, Assessment, and Teaching Transformation

10:30    Break

10:45    Meet other new members of CII (10-15 minutes each)

12:30      Lunch Buffet

1:15         Check-in on what CII Members have been doing this year.
We will ask each CII member and guest to briefly describe their work as it relates to mis/disinformation (~4 minutes each)

2:45         Small Group Discussion: Building and AI Conscience?  Critical Conversations on AI and Society Across the Disciplines

4:00         Cocktail Hour

5:00         End

Friday, April 24

10:00    David Castillo, Welcome and Intro to Day 2

10:15    “Artificial Intelligence, Media Literacy, and Children’s Mental Health,” a panel discussion:

• Christine Wang, PI of UB’s Center on Early Literacy & Responsible AI (CELaRAI), Director of Fisher-Price Endowed Early Childhood Research Center (ECRC)
• Eric Yarwood, Executive Director at Education Collaborative of WNY
• Leah Jacobs, Founder & Director, Digital Wellness Project

11:15    Break

11:30    "AI and Pedagogy," a panel discussion with Ewa Ziarek, Ruth Mack, and Alex Read

12:30    Lunch Buffet

1:15       “Triple Contingency and the Ethics of Collective Inscription,” Quran Karriem, Assistant Professor of Critical AI, Media and Race Studies from Syracuse University

2:15     Break

2:30     Meet more new members of CII (10-15 minutes each)

3:30     As May Arise

4:30     End