kennedy+swan: The Red Queen Effect

About the exhibition

The exhibition The Red Queen Effect by the artist duo kennedy+swan comprimises two works that critically examine the use of AI in medicine. A four-channel video installation tells the story of the fictional start-up ALICE, which tests AI-based health products with a group of participants. Through interviews, the work reveals a wide range of attitudes toward health technologies - spanning hope, skepticism, fear, and dependency.

Lung Portraits

The second part of the exhibition, Lung Portraits, consists of twelve chemically treated watercolor paintings on glass inspired by microscopic tissue samples. These images were fed into AI model trained to detect cancer, which interpreted the artworks as medical image data and produced seemingly plausible diagnoses. By laser-engraving these diagnoses onto the works, kennedy+swan expose the limitations and risks of AI-based systems.

At the heart of The Red Queen Effect lies a paradox: the promise of medical progress through AI alongside the growing pressure to keep pace with technological development, raising questions about the social, ethical, and political responsibility of AI in medicine.

Fotos der Künstler

The works were developed as part of the Art of Etanglement fellowship, awarded in 2024 by the Schering Foundation and the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD).