About Maximum Activations

GAZELL.iO is thrilled to showcase Maximum Activations, the latest series by our December 2024 artist-in-residence, Tom White. The latest results in AI mechanistic interpretability research reveal intricate proto-concepts hiding inside Large Language Models like ChatGPT. The series "Maximum Activations" reveals this hidden structure as networked collections of activating contexts. Separated conceptual building blocks such as "supplies taken on journeys" and "references to social media and digital culture (learned when trained to be a friendly chatbot)" are presented as visual collages of relevant computer memories.

About Tom White

Tom White (dribnet) is a New Zealand based visual artist focused on work combining AI and drawing systems for over 25 years. He studied computer graphics and visual design at the MIT Aesthetics and Computation group with professor John Maeda where his 1998 MS Thesis investigated the potential for multi-touch interfaces to provide better computer interfaces. His early work on drawing frameworks led to influential software that is still popular today - such as Processing, openFrameworks, and p5.js. His computational art has been exhibited at museums internationally including Cooper Union, MoMA, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, and the NeurIPS Art Gallery. He is also currently a lecturer teaching computational design and creative AI at the Victoria University of Wellington School of Design.