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The Zizi Show, by British media artist Jake Elwes, is a deepfake drag cabaret that explores the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and drag performance. Join us to hear Elwes talk about the making of The Zizi Show, from collaborating with the best of London’s drag scene to unpacking the biases of AI. An installation of The Zizi Show, commissioned by the V&A and supported by the Manitou Fund, is on view in the Photography Centre until February 2024.
Jake Elwes (b.1993) is an artist living and working in London. They studied at The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (2013-17). Searching for poetry and narrative in the success and failures of AI systems, Jake Elwes investigates the aesthetics and ethics inherent to AI. Elwes’ practice makes use of the sophistication of machine learning, while finding illuminating qualities in its limitations. Across projects that encompass moving-image installation, sound and performance, Elwes seeks to queer datasets, demystifying and subverting predominantly cisgender and straight AI systems. While it may seem like the AI is a creative collaborator, Elwes is careful to point out that the AI has neither intentionality or agency; it is a neutral agent existing within a human framework.
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Header image: The Zizi Show 2020, montage of a deepfake training on drag queen Lilly Snatchdragon, courtesy of the artist