Zizi - Queering the Dataset

‘Zizi - Queering the Dataset’ aims to tackle the lack of representation and diversity in the training datasets often used by facial recognition systems. The video was made by disrupting these systems* and re-training them with the addition of drag and gender fluid faces found online. This causes the weights inside the neural network to shift away from the normative identities it was originally trained on and into a space of queerness. ‘Zizi - Queering the Dataset’ lets us peek inside the machine learning system and visualize what the neural network has (and hasn’t) learnt. The work is a celebration of difference and ambiguity, which invites us to reflect on bias in our data driven society.

The ‘Zizi Project’ (2019-ongoing) is a collection of works by Jake Elwes exploring the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and drag performance. Drag challenges gender and explores otherness, while AI is often mystified as a concept and tool and is complicit in reproducing social bias. ‘Zizi’ combines these themes through a deep fake, synthesized drag identity created using machine learning. The project explores what AI can teach us about drag, and what drag can teach us about AI.

*A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks (2019)

Title: Zizi – Queering the Dataset

Medium: multi-channel digital video, 135 minute loop

Artist: Jake Elwes

Year: 2019

Location: On display at Pedion tou Areos

Credits: Originally commissioned by Experiential AI at Edinburgh Futures Institute

Glossary

Dataset
Facial recognition
Neural network
Machine learning
Algorithmic prejudice
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Generative Adversarial Network (GAN)

‘Zizi’ was originally commissioned by Experiential AI at Edinburgh Futures Institute