We are Tong Wu & Yuguang Zhang, a new media artist duo raised on the Internet, and the founders of Alternative Systems. We now co-exist with our digital doubles in Chrome browsers and Brooklyn, New York. Our joint artistic practice, which incorporates experiments with fine-tuned generative AI models, immersive installations, web-based interactions, 3D animations, community workshops, and performance, explores the dynamic relationships we could cultivate with autonomous intelligent systems, and the societal and cultural shifts that accompany these interactions.

Our Approach

As a duo, we share an interest in the notion of "alternatives," or what we call adjacent yet different scenarios from the present. Grounded in scientific principles, our artistic approach explores plausible alternative realities, especially those where humans and sentient machines may cohabit. We wonder if our view is only one story among many, and there could be other paths - accessible only to non-human intelligence - that reveal new visions of reality. Through our work, we invite the exploration of these alternative truths, and to reimagine our world in a broader, more inclusive light.

Recognition & Awards

Our work has been recognized through numerous prestigious awards and grants:

• National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grant, USA
• Google AMI (Artist+Machine Intelligence) Research Award
• The Lumen Prize Award (Still Image Category)
• Digital Dozen Special Jury Awards, Columbia University
• S+T+ARTS Project Award, EU
• Re:Humanism AI Art Prize, Rome, Italy
• MAX: Media Art Xploration Grant, New York, USA
• Regional Emmy Award, USA

Exhibitions & Commissions

Our art projects has been featured in significant venues and events such as:

• INDEX Biennale of Arts and Technology
• City of Palo Alto Public Art Program
• International Olympics Committee (IOC) Young Leaders Programme
• MAXXI - National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome
• Le Centquatre, Paris (Némo Biennial of Digital Arts)
• New York Live Arts
• Museum of Science, Boston
• CURRENTS New Media Festival, Santa Fe

Academic & Research Positions

We maintain active roles in academia and research:

• Machine Learning Research Fellowship at NYU ITP
• Adjunct Professor, NYU Tisch School of Arts (Teaching Generative AI Art)
• Research Fellow, Interactive Media Arts LowRes, NYU
• Artist Residencies at MAX: Media Art Xploration, Danspace Project, and SloMoCo

Speaking & Workshops

We regularly share our expertise through talks and workshops at prestigious institutions such as:

• Salzburg Media Academy
• Sundance Artist Accelerator Program
• CUNY Graduate Center Art Science Connect
• School for Poetic Computation (SFPC)
• Yale University CCAM
• School of Visual Arts (SVA)
• BlackStar Film Festival
• International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
• CultureHub

The Artists

Tong Wu holds a BA degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Master's degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University. She is an AI research engineer, whose research work uses design, code and narrative to explore the possibilities and boundaries of intelligent systems experience design.

Yuguang Zhang is a machine learning technologist and a member of interdisciplinary collective NUUM which creates research-based performance with movement, sound, text, visual art and coded rules of interaction. He is also an adjunct professor of the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University's Tisch School of Arts, where he teaches courses about generative AI for creative media production.

Press & Media

Our work has been featured in various publications including:

• Neural Magazine
• Variety Magazine
• The Paper.cn
• Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art
• ARTRON
• ReadCopy.co