TIME Magazine has named Sougwen Chung one of the 100 most influential figures in artificial intelligence—and now, Chung is coming to Heilbronn. In a joint exhibition, Kunstverein Heilbronn and the IPAI Foundation will present the exhibition Ecologies of Becoming, highlighting a decade of Chung’s artistic work. Chinese-Canadian Chung now lives in London, directing Studio SCILICET, after having started the practice in New York. Founded by Sougwen Chung, SCILICET pioneers interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and robotic technologies, with a focus on experimentation, invention, and care. By engaging technology not as a tool for as a collaborator, SCILICET develops configurations of human and machine beyond automation. The London-based but internationally active studio explores these ideas through installations, performances, exhibitions and artefacts. Since building the very first Drawing Operations Unit Generation_1 (D.O.U.G._1) robotic system, Chung has been exploring creative collaboration between humans and machines—with a particular focus on how machines can function not just as tools, but as active collaborators. Chung's work emphasizes the human ability to anthropomorphize relationships with machines, especially robots. In this context, Chung also explores the concepts of authorship and agency. Questions of control and the significace of this control remain central. This hybrid act of drawing combines performative and ritual elements and creates references to classical calligraphy, abstract painting and computer-generated art. Now in the process of building a next generation, D.O.U.G._6, Chung will present a retrospective of this body of work at Kunstverein Heilbronn, highlighting a decade of artistic and technological development. The exhibition will feature process documentation, artefacts on canvas, robotic systems, and an installation. Simultaneously, at IPAI, Sougwen Chung will show a new work in its SPACES hall, giving a peek into the future of the practice, as well as screen a film next to the main entrance. Moritz Gräter, CEO of the IPAI Foundation, adds: “This exhibition is an invitation to reflect on our relationship with technology—and on what defines us as humans in the digital age. In our work at the IPAI Foundation, we engage deeply with the ethical questions surrounding AI. For us, art serves as a way to initiate dialog with people and open up new perspectives on technology.” For the first time Kunstverein Heilbronn collaborates for this exhibiton project with IPAI Foundation. As a nonprofit organization, the IPAI Foundation complements the AI innovation platform IPAI and is dedicated to exploring how we as a society can drive societal and technological progress through human-centered artificial intelligence (AI). By doing so, it plays a key role in the shared vision of shaping the Global Home of Human AI in Heilbronn. Sougwen Chung’s works have been collected by the Victoria & Albert Museum, Berggruen Institute, 0x Collection, and EMMA, Espoo Museum of Modern Art (Espoo); and exhibited at Mana Contemporary (New York), Pearl Art Museum (Shanghai), Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver), K11 (Hong Kong), Francisco Carolinum (Linz), Laurenz Haus with Schaulager (Basel), and the NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC, Tokyo), among others. In 2016, Chung was awarded the Japan Media Arts Excellence Award for Drawing Operations; and has also been awarded Artist in Residence positions at Google, New Museum’s E.A.T. at Nokia Bell Labs, MIT Media Lab, and Studio Wayne McGregor. They also spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, at UNESCO, SIGGRAPH, TED, and many other leading conferences.