Hidden Layers: AI Infrastructures and Hallucinations
September 3 - October 3, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 3 - 4:00pm-6:00pm
Grégory Chatonsky, Readonlymemories VI (2026), video still
The Department of German and the Department of Art Practice are excited to announce the opening of Hidden Layers: AI Infrastructures and Hallucinations, curated by Antonio Somaini with Hannes Bajohr and Sonja Thiel, in dialogue with the France–Berkeley research initiative The Latent Spaces of Culture, and on display at the Worth Ryder Art Gallery.
This exhibition examines some of the concealed dimensions of contemporary AI culture—the planetary infrastructures of extraction and computation, the often-invisible human labor, the latent vector spaces within which culture is compressed and processed, and the models’ hallucinations. Hidden Layers tackles these phenomena from two perspectives: AI Infrastructures and AI Hallucinations.
Featuring works by Nouf Aljowaysir; Gašper and Nina Beguš & Metahaven; Grégory Chatonsky; Kate Crawford & Vladan Joler; Asma Kazmi & Jill Miller; Andrea Khôra; Occitane Lacurie & Barnabé Sauvage; Greg Niemeyer; and Mario Santamaria & Alex Saum-Pascual.
The exhibition and associated programming are a collaboration between the Department of German and the Worth Ryder Art Gallery at the Department of Art Practice.
Exhibition Dates: September 3 - October 3, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 3, 4-6:30pm, Worth Ryder Art Gallery
Artist Talk, Gregory Chatonsky: Thursday, September 3, 6:30-8:00pm, AAPB 285
Film Program: September 9, 7 pm, BAMPFA
Curatorial Tour, led by Antonio Somaini: September 10, 10am, Worth Ryder Art Gallery
Workshop on Latent Space of Culture: September 9, 2pm-4pm; September 10/11, 9:30 am-4pm on both days, 470 Stephens
Closing Event: Tour of AI: October 3 Timing to be announced
Additional events, details, and registration links to be announced. Times subject to change, please also check the campus calendar(link is external).
This exhibition is supported by the France-Berkeley Fund of the Institute of European Studies, the Department of German and the Department of Art Practice, together with the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS), Pamela P. Fong and Family Distinguished Chair in China Studies, Department of Rhetoric; Antikythera, the Townsend Center for the Humanities and the School of Information, the Technology Network of the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative (BESI); and the Berkeley Art, Law, and Finance Project, hosted by the Berkeley Center for Law and Business at Berkeley Law.
In conjunction with the exhibition, additional programming is developed in collaboration with Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) and the Institute for Contemporary Art San Jose.