Fascinating Meeting of April 30, 2025

June 24, 2025

On April 30, 2025, SMRN held another engaging meeting with a wonderful group of members, including Laura Marks, Niusha Hatefinia, Mihai Băcăran, Lynn M. Kirby, Steven Baris, Çigdem Borucu, and Pantea Karimi. 

The meeting began with our friend Mihai Băcăran, who presented his research titled Imaginary Artworks and AI Data Work. Drawing from his experience as a transcriber in a secure lab in Sofia, Bulgaria, Mihai offered a compelling exploration of audio transcription in AI projects. He described the controlled environments in which workers transcribe voice recordings captured from digital devices. Through this repetitive and often monotonous process, Mihai discovered an unexpected phenomenon: the emergence of fleeting, surreal mental compositions that he argues constitute a form of unacknowledged art.

By referencing modernist art practices, imaginary music, and literary works, Mihai proposed that these ephemeral mental experiences are more than just a byproduct of labor. These "imaginary artworks" represent a subtle resistance to the robotization of work, creating momentary spaces of creativity and imagination within a system designed to reduce human labor to algorithmic precision. They challenge utilitarian views of labor and reframing our understanding of artistic production in the age of AI. 

In the second part of the meeting, Lynn M. Kirby presented a deeply personal project centered on her mother's life and memory. She began by introducing her work with the Missing Tenderness Institute, discussing her approach to art that intervenes outside traditional art systems and engages with place, presence, and performative forms. Her recent projects have involved site-specific performances, collaborative works, and experimental recording methods, often using tools like scanners to capture moments in time.

The core of her presentation was a video project inspired by a photograph of her mother in a gondola in Venice from 1948. The video, accompanied by a live voiceover, wove together personal narrative, historical context, and meditations on mothers, daughters, and loss. Lynn explored themes of memory, geopolitical events of 1948, and the profound impact of her mother's death. Using black-and-white imagery, historical references, and a fragmented narrative style, the piece created an intimate, emotionally resonant reflection on time, memory, and familial connection.