Remember my hypothetical about the artist who intentionally leaves a camera out for a monkey to use?
Well, Agnieszka Kurant's show up at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery includes the following work:
"The sculptural installation A.A.I. (whose title references the concept of 'artificial artificial intelligence') is the product of the collective intelligence of termites to which Kurant outsourced her art production. ... Working with entomologists in laboratories at the University of Florida, Kurant employed an entirely unaware worker society of millions of termite specimens to produce sculptural mounds. The artist supplied the termites with alternative building materials such as vividly colored sands, gold, and glitter resulting in the creation of hybrid forms hovering between nature and culture."
Does anyone doubt that Kurant holds (and deserves) the copyright in the work?
