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(link is external): Thursday, September 3, 4-6:30pm, Worth Ryder Art Gallery Open to the public, RSVP(link is external) requested
Artist Talk, Gregory Chatonsky “INFRALLUCINATION”(link is external): Thursday, September 3, 6:30-8:00pm, AAPB 285 Open to the public, RSVP required(link is external)
Film Program, Push Buttons and AI(link is external): September 9, 7 pm, BAMPFA RSVP(link is external)
Curatorial Tour, led by Antonio Somaini(link is external): Friday, September 11, 4:30pm, Worth Ryder Art Gallery Open to the public, no RSVP required
Workshop: The Latent Spaces of Culture: The Aesthetics, Epistemology, and Politics of AI September 10, 2pm-4pm; September 11/12, 9:30 am-4pm on both days, 470 Stephens
Berkeley AI Futures Salon(link is external): On the Subject of Art in Artificial Intelligence: September 16, 6:30pm– 9pm Apply to attend(link is external)
Water and AI. What AI can learn from Water. Panel discussion: October 1, 6:30pm-8pm. Worth Ryder Art Gallery.
A Tour of AI: October 3 Reservations required(link is external).
Closing day: October 3, 12-3pm, Worth Ryder Art Gallery Open to the public, no RSVP required
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), Department of Rhetoric; Antikythera, the Pamela P. Fong and Family Distinguished Chair in China Studies, the Division of Arts & Humanities, 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), the San Jose State University and the Institute for Contemporary Art San Jose.