Artist Kyle McDonald to Show AI Installation at Vibecon in New York

Artist Kyle McDonald will present a new interactive installation at the Vibecon conference in New York on June 17. His work lives on the cutting edge of machine learning, computer vision and social technology: a kind of "hidden interventions" in familiar spaces.

Kyle McDonald's practice

Kyle McDonald builds installations that use computer vision and ML to interact with the viewer. Sometimes these interactions are explicit and easy to read; sometimes they work so covertly that people at first do not realize they are being observed. McDonald does not just make works, he also generously shares tools with other artists, helping them experiment with the technology. His practice shows that machine learning is not just about numbers and predictions. It is about creating new experiences.

Vibecon: where culture meets code

Vibecon (June 17-18, NYC) is a conference for people who build culture with technology. Artists, developers, designers and creatives meet there. On the first day, McDonald will show a new interactive installation. Details of the content have not been disclosed yet, but one can expect the following to be involved:

• Computer vision for detecting and tracking movement
• Real-time interaction between the viewer and the system
• Unexpected visual or tactile moments, a McDonald signature

Art that sees

When a serious artist works with ML and computer vision, it is a signal: the technology has left the lab and become a means of expression. AI is no longer just a tool for classifying data or predicting trends. For McDonald and his generation, it is a way to create a new form of dialogue between viewer and machine.

What this means

AI in culture is no longer science fiction or a geek hobby. Artists like Kyle McDonald use it to create authentic experiences, not hype. Vibecon gathers those who understand this. And every new McDonald installation is a question to us: when we see technology around us, do we really see it?