Jake Elwes: Zizi in Motion: A Deepfake Drag Utopia (Movement by Wet Mess)

What can artificial intelligence (AI) teach us about drag? And what can drag teach us about AI? Media artist Jake Elwes explores these questions in the video installation Zizi in Motion: A Deepfake Drag Utopia (Movement by Wet Mess) to critically examine the complex human and social realities brought into the process of designing digital systems.

This presentation brings 21 life-size deepfakes of drag artists to the same stage on a digital LED screen in the museum’s Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Atrium. Elwes collaborated closely with London-based drag queens and kings to collect closed datasets of their likenesses and construct AI-generated versions of themselves that can dance to drag legend Wet Mess’s choreography. Visual disruptions of performers’ appearances and movements bring our attention to AI’s limitations, while suggesting its gender biases and insufficient queer representations in its normative frameworks.

As a performance form that challenges societal norms around gender expression, drag becomes a playful tactic for the artist to demystify and subvert these often exploitative technologies and create artwork by and for their community.

Drag cast members: Baby Lame, Bolly-Illusion, Bourgeoisie, Cara Melle, Charlie Wood, Chiyo, Dahc Dermur VIII, Dakota Schiffer, HERR, Lilly SnatchDragon, Lavinia Co-op, Luke Slyka, Mahatma Khandi, Mark Anthony, Me The Drag Queen, Miss Terri Boxx, Oedipussi Rex, Ruby Wednesday, Sister Sister, TeTe Bang, Wet Mess