me + you

November 2021 — July 2022
Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building
Commissioned by Amazon Web Services
Curated by Isolde Brielmaier

me + you is an interactive artificial intelligence (AI) and light sculpture, commissioned for the rotunda at the historic Smithsonian Institution Arts and Industries Building as part of the FUTURES exhibition. The two-story installation weaves human wisdom and intelligent technology together, and is the first major art commission by Amazon Web Services (AWS), and is curated by Isolde Brielmaier.

me + you engages with the idea that technology is wisdom, and that it is our human interaction with this wisdom that brings it into beauty and balance. Weaving the imprint of humans and the intelligence of technology together in a totemic textile, me + you creates an enduring cultural artifact of collective balance that is a positive emblem for a future of co-evolution.

me + you speaks to our imperative as humans to envision our relationship with technology as a positive dialogue. It creates a visceral, immediate and human connection to technology, one that instigates a feeling of wonder as we encounter our feelings mirrored to us via the sculptural apparatus. The concept of the textile and central “loom” are drawn from the jacquard loom, the precursor to the computer. Connecting ancient knowledge and artificial intelligence through machine learning, me + you weaves a new beautiful wisdom.

me + you is powered by AWS and utilizes Transcribe, Lambda, Comprehend, and Sagemaker.

Reddy also designed an online digital counterpart to the physical installation in the rotunda of the Smithsonian’s Arts + Industries Building so everyone, no matter their geographic location, could experience the work.