https://mayalivio.com MAYA LIVIO Thu, 11 Jul 2024 18:25:38 +0000 https://mayalivio.com en https://mayalivio.com/SALVAGING-BIRDS Tue, 31 Aug 2021 03:56:42 +0000 MAYA LIVIO https://mayalivio.com/SALVAGING-BIRDS <img width="3024" height="1695" width_o="3024" height_o="1695" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/33450d8c9c40b1e702db1a65d9aa224dccf5284653e706ca2acdc3bebe2bb2cc/Salvaging-Birds-Still-3_Livio.png" data-mid="214504118" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/33450d8c9c40b1e702db1a65d9aa224dccf5284653e706ca2acdc3bebe2bb2cc/Salvaging-Birds-Still-3_Livio.png" />SALVAGING BIRDS(2018–ongoing) feature-length documentary, custom-trained AI-generated birds, birdsong, and music (estimated 60 min. runtime) A motley flock of speculative birds and avian conservation experts hover around the question: What is lost when birds become data? Birds are the most datafied wild beings. Ornithology, among the oldest organized scientific disciplines, has captured avian data from specimen bodies to digital repositories—now feeding that data into large-scale analysis systems such as AI tools. Salvaging Birds traces the logics and histories of this extensive bird datafication. It blends documentary interviews with experts in ornithology, avian AI, and community and Indigenous sciences together with AI-generated birds that intervene into otherwise biased datasets. Specifically, Salvaging Birds queers avian conservation data, which contains significant male biases, by featuring imaginary female, intersex, and queer birds that were created by custom-training AI. The resulting speculative birds, birdsong, and music are woven into the live-action interviews. Taken together, the film complicates datafied approaches to conserving what and who is left of our world. &nbsp; Supported by:CalTech-Huntington Art + Research ResidencyNew Music USA Creator Development FundSchool of Communication Faculty Research Grant, American UniversityEnvironmental Futures (Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) Notes:Salvaging Birds is part of a multimodal suite of works which also includes a research paper (2025), short film (2025), book chapter (2023), sonic essay (2022).&nbsp;With special thanks to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library, The Moore Lab of Zoology at Occidental College, Erin Espelie, Cassie McQuater, JP Merz, the Huntington Library, and Caltech. <img width="3016" height="1694" width_o="3016" height_o="1694" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fcdd8840acb35bccf15624e48cc17c524543cec2ccd6d47c17a1b54662ff4978/Salvaging-Birds_Still-6.png" data-mid="214505117" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fcdd8840acb35bccf15624e48cc17c524543cec2ccd6d47c17a1b54662ff4978/Salvaging-Birds_Still-6.png" /><img width="3014" height="1702" width_o="3014" height_o="1702" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ed266333296c4fc77f9a6b618d3a6f6488074bd6f09d0b0563d650cf4ed88f4/Salvaging-Birds_Still-7.png" data-mid="214505247" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7ed266333296c4fc77f9a6b618d3a6f6488074bd6f09d0b0563d650cf4ed88f4/Salvaging-Birds_Still-7.png" /> https://mayalivio.com/AVIFAUNA Thu, 11 Jul 2024 17:54:09 +0000 MAYA LIVIO https://mayalivio.com/AVIFAUNA <img width="2898" height="1658" width_o="2898" height_o="1658" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4a84ef2abd6cdca401d34fe11009c276f276cd32fa009f8b6e7bd98cc66749e7/Aviary-Still-1.png" data-mid="214510774" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4a84ef2abd6cdca401d34fe11009c276f276cd32fa009f8b6e7bd98cc66749e7/Aviary-Still-1.png" />AVIFAUNA(2025) 5:05m, 4K video, custom-trained AI-generated images, birdsong, and music, color, sound Avifauna roosts together speculative female, intersex, and queer birds and birdsong. Bird datasets from specimen collections to birdsong repositories have been demonstrated to contain male biases. Consistently, female, intersex, and queer birds are undercounted and understudied, leading to incomplete environmental understandings. Fancifully filling in these data gaps, the birds and birdsong in Avifauna were created by custom-training AI on the limited number of real bird data avaialble for birds presenting as female, intersex, same-sex pairs, and non-nuclear family units—generating more, imaginary birds.The image and birdsong data was collected from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library, the largest respository of avian data in the world, and used to custom-train multiple image– and audio-generation AI models (neural networks). In addition to training the models on real birds, they were also trained on two supplementary datasets: (1) The entirety of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America, a well-known book of bird illustrations which also features male and heterosexual biases and surfaces the racist and colonial histories of birding; (2) The canon of Western classical music inspired by birdsong, itself dominated by a privileged few, which was revealed by Livio’s research to similarly reference primarily male birds. Intervening in these rich scientific and cultural datasets, Avifauna speculatively writes missing birds back in. Supported by:CalTech-Huntington Art + Research ResidencyNew Music USA Creator Development Fund Notes:Avifauna is a proof-of-concept for the feature-length documentary Salvaging Birds, which features these speculative birds, birdsongs, and music alongside interviews about bird datafication and avian AI. With special thanks to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library. https://mayalivio.com/AN-ASTONISHING-RANGE-OF-VOCAL-SOUNDS Thu, 11 Jul 2024 18:25:38 +0000 MAYA LIVIO https://mayalivio.com/AN-ASTONISHING-RANGE-OF-VOCAL-SOUNDS <img width="2554" height="1596" width_o="2554" height_o="1596" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5fe39e1dc36ec4d432252adfb74948064aa2d3366bb72b4a66e98b9d9011864b/mayasBirds9.png" data-mid="214506367" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5fe39e1dc36ec4d432252adfb74948064aa2d3366bb72b4a66e98b9d9011864b/mayasBirds9.png" />AN ASTONISHING RANGE OF VOCAL SOUNDS(2022) 21:32, sonic essay, custom-trained AI-generated birdsong and music An Astonshing Range of Vocal Sounds is an experimental sonic essay featuring creative nonfiction writing and custom-trained AI generated birdsong and music. Commissioned by Fermynwoods Contemporary Art (UK) for their series, Xylophobia, the piece surveys the use of data to study birds and introduces the problems of bias and misclassification found in avian datasets. Noting that female, intersex, and queer birds are often missing from scientific study, the work troubles what it means to be “missing” from data, as it leads to being both understudied and unsurveilled. The soundscapes in the piece were created by custom-training audio-generation AI (neural networks) on two datasets: Real birdsong data of female and non-binary presenting birds gathered from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library, and the canon of Western classical music inspired by birdsong. Each of these datasets features male biases, and so the newly generated birdsong and music add missing birds back in without reproducing the harms of gathering real bird data. Commissioned by: Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, Northhamptonshire, UK, 2022. Supported by:CalTech-Huntington Art + Research ResidencyNew Music USA Creator Development Fund Notes:An Astonishing Range of Vocal Sounds is a proof-of-concept for the feature-length documentary Salvaging Birds, which features speculative bird images, birdsongs, and music alongside interviews about bird datafication and avian AI. With special thanks to Marie-Chantal Hamrock, Astrid Björklund, James Steventon, Jessica Harby, Sapphire Goss, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library. Comissioned image by Cassie McQuater https://mayalivio.com/THERMOPOWER Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:18:46 +0000 MAYA LIVIO https://mayalivio.com/THERMOPOWER <img width="2880" height="1800" width_o="2880" height_o="1800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7812cb68b0d11c48595f47185d957f0bfb948ce10b30ed96f9a2e9b40b5e03d2/Screen-Shot-2021-06-19-at-11.25.45-AM.png" data-mid="111784109" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7812cb68b0d11c48595f47185d957f0bfb948ce10b30ed96f9a2e9b40b5e03d2/Screen-Shot-2021-06-19-at-11.25.45-AM.png" /> THERMOPOWER(v1 2019–2021, v2 2024) 12:35m, HD video, color, sound Thermopower explores the biological concept of thermoregulation across mammals and machines. It introduces the American pika (Ochotona princeps), a small mountainous relative of rabbits and indicator species for the climate crisis, as a frame through which to articulate how thermoregulation affects and is affected by human animals, nonhuman animals, and human-designed technologies like internet data centers. The research-driven film repurposes a steerable, networked research camera called TundraCam, typically used by scientists to study the alpine tundra. Commingling creative, scientific, and technological approaches, it animates a conversation on the role of technology in both the maintenance and loss of livable temperatures. Supported by:The Andy Warhol Foundation for the ArtsRedline Contemporary Art CenterNature, Environment, Science, Technology Studio for the Arts (NEST)Screenings &amp; Exhibitions: Go Short International Short Film Festival, Nijmegen NL (2024)Labocine by Imagine Science Films , Mountain Panorama program (2024) FEELERS: Towards Reciprocal Sensing, Fulcrum Festival, Los Angeles, CA (2022)The Other Art Fair, Saatchi, Los Angeles, CA (2021)Labocine by Imagine Science Films, Winter of the Climate-Haunted Globe program (2020)Nature Club, Femmebit, Online (2020)4S Making &amp; Doing, New Orleans, LA (2019)Multispecies Storytelling, Växjö, Sweden (2019) Notes:Thermopower is the result of field and lab research conducted with Ashley Whipple, a biologist studying American pika stress. <img width="4668" height="3096" width_o="4668" height_o="3096" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b40f23f34184b94a6a810a2405a8d2f01ab7a49423c1be4f0b16457892eab338/Pika-cover-photo_darker-bottom.jpg" data-mid="53903085" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b40f23f34184b94a6a810a2405a8d2f01ab7a49423c1be4f0b16457892eab338/Pika-cover-photo_darker-bottom.jpg" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/de31d51e261cf7fb1e7603dbdc37bba41b14d461874da232b77260b64272a681/IMG_2329.jpg" data-mid="156635477" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/de31d51e261cf7fb1e7603dbdc37bba41b14d461874da232b77260b64272a681/IMG_2329.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eb7372dbf88f25c218be07dd93688089839c6e3ae79b91fb0be5c010ef74615b/IBG_3911.jpg" data-mid="156635428" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eb7372dbf88f25c218be07dd93688089839c6e3ae79b91fb0be5c010ef74615b/IBG_3911.jpg" /> Documentation by Ian Byers Gambel https://mayalivio.com/RE-GENERATIVE-IMAGES Sat, 22 Oct 2022 00:58:09 +0000 MAYA LIVIO https://mayalivio.com/RE-GENERATIVE-IMAGES <img width="2194" height="1234" width_o="2194" height_o="1234" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d0ddf073237f3f5b5f152ad56239ab40ea7dc9c1a838e9283211ca8901768d8d/Indeterminate-Progress_still.png" data-mid="196775183" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d0ddf073237f3f5b5f152ad56239ab40ea7dc9c1a838e9283211ca8901768d8d/Indeterminate-Progress_still.png" /> RE: GENERATIVE IMAGES (2022) essay &amp; slow-tech nstallation RE: Generative Images is an essay with accompanying installation that responds to the environmental harms of generative (AI) images. The work’s animations and visual materials were produced as material research, made entirely of plant-derived photographic emulsions (American pokeweed and goldenrod) that were exposed in the sun. These images are unfixed, susceptible to degradation and decay so that they can be made and remade. The essay and its accompanying installation reject technological progress narratives, instead embracing environmentally-informed methods as joyful guardrails rather than limitations. Exhibition: a time to tear, a time to mend, Wönzimer Gallery, Los Angeles, 2022 <img width="2095" height="1397" width_o="2095" height_o="1397" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f42c9fbaf17cc679b193f7559ab4c0ff6a5c0a25dc3f5a84f90efad56c611184/IBG_1748.jpg" data-mid="216519124" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f42c9fbaf17cc679b193f7559ab4c0ff6a5c0a25dc3f5a84f90efad56c611184/IBG_1748.jpg" /> <img width="1615" height="2422" width_o="1615" height_o="2422" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/78ae857a6d82ca2f2d9a3355e1a24be7ce112fbd3b1bac9501555f36a28dd3a4/IBG_1757.jpg" data-mid="216520194" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/78ae857a6d82ca2f2d9a3355e1a24be7ce112fbd3b1bac9501555f36a28dd3a4/IBG_1757.jpg" /> <img width="2408" height="1606" width_o="2408" height_o="1606" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/23b37b1fad1bd14a9e7bb223ffb593464174797f6c1385981ef4b3251dfe57cd/RE_Generative-Images_Install_Wonzimer.jpg" data-mid="216519093" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/23b37b1fad1bd14a9e7bb223ffb593464174797f6c1385981ef4b3251dfe57cd/RE_Generative-Images_Install_Wonzimer.jpg" /> Documentation by Ian Byers Gambel &amp; Isabel Beavers https://mayalivio.com/MUSIC-FOR-EGGS-1 Sat, 24 Mar 2018 20:55:12 +0000 MAYA LIVIO https://mayalivio.com/MUSIC-FOR-EGGS-1 MUSIC FOR EGGS (2018) Babypod intravaginal speaker, mp3 player, headphonesMusic for Eggs is a string quartet for human egg cells to be played to them on the Babypod, an intravaginal speaker designed for gestating fetuses. Babypod was developed based on the long-standing assumption that music, particularly Western classical music, stimulates child development. This belief has led to products such as albums for babies (e.g. Baby Beethoven) and more recently has been leveraged as the rationale for technologies that play music to children before they are even born. Pregnancy devices like Babypod facilitate particular kinds of reproductive control. They reinforce dominant narratives of “culture” and of who counts as a “good” mother, shifting mothering pressures to earlier stages of childhood development. Music for Eggs, then, pushes the technology to its logical extreme, using it to play music to eggs which have not yet been fertilized. For the work, Livio commissioned and closely collaborated on the composition of a string quartet, an iconic classical medium, to produce a piece she would want her eggs to hear. In doing so, she also considered her broader relationship to narratives of bodily autonomy—as most or perhaps all of her eggs will die. The piece is therefore also developed in reverence for those eggs which will never become fertilized.Music for Eggs is the first work developed for the research project Tech in Women. Supported by:Eloise Timmons Memorial AwardBeverly Sears Graduate Student Grant Exhibition: Embryonic, NEST Studio for the Arts, Boulder, Colorado (2018). Notes: Cited in: Laura Devendorf, Kristina Andersen, Aisling Kelliher. 2020. “The Fundamental Uncertainties of Mothering: Finding Ways to Honor Endurance, Struggle, and Contradiction.” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Vol. 27, No. 4, Article 26. With: Leslee Smucker (violin), Magee Capsouto (violin), Allyson Stibbards (viola), Cecilia Swanson (cello), JP Merz (composition) <img width="2470" height="1389" width_o="2470" height_o="1389" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2cc17a1f208b02ad0f241fd18fc369c642dabe089f8f1b14e5d412982d7ac877/Screen-Shot-2019-11-02-at-7.14.51-PM.png" data-mid="96145690" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2cc17a1f208b02ad0f241fd18fc369c642dabe089f8f1b14e5d412982d7ac877/Screen-Shot-2019-11-02-at-7.14.51-PM.png" /> <img width="2026" height="1136" width_o="2026" height_o="1136" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9be830d68392492b4fb4b3eadf85e7cf9830cfcd04110b92c2bb3fdde068ec21/Music-for-Eggs_cropped.png" data-mid="96145860" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9be830d68392492b4fb4b3eadf85e7cf9830cfcd04110b92c2bb3fdde068ec21/Music-for-Eggs_cropped.png" /> https://mayalivio.com/TECH-IN-WOMEN Fri, 15 Jan 2021 04:42:01 +0000 MAYA LIVIO https://mayalivio.com/TECH-IN-WOMEN <img width="1290" height="1054" width_o="1290" height_o="1054" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/601e145374236ff0d13715e29bd1431d3a0adff9b0b68d8cd1456647fa3b6806/tech-in-women_collection-sample.png" data-mid="115672443" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/601e145374236ff0d13715e29bd1431d3a0adff9b0b68d8cd1456647fa3b6806/tech-in-women_collection-sample.png" />TECH IN WOMEN (2018–ongoing) Tech in Women is a research project named as a playful response to popular discourse on “women in tech.” It consists of a curated collection of devices, scholarly research and writing, and associated creative works. The project centers on technologies designed for women’s bodies, beginning with reproductive and menstrual devices and particularly focused on the recent proliferation of networked and wearable devices like vaginal exercisers and speakers for playing music to fetuses. Surveying the history of these technologies and highlighting their embedded politics, the project&nbsp; demonstrates the vulnerabilities they expose, particularly for BIPOC and other marginalized women, including disease, maternal pressures, and data privacy threats. The project’s first work is Music for Eggs.Current devices in the collection include: Babypod — intravaginal speaker for gestating fetusesElvie — smart pelvic floor muscle exerciserLivia — abdominal electrical nerve stimulator for menstrual crampsEssure — nonsurgical female sterilization deviceWusic — womb heartbeat monitorMirena — hormonal contraceptive intrauterine device Skyla — hormonal contraceptive intrauterine deviceParaGard — copper contraceptive intrauterine device NuvaRing — hormonal contraceptive vaginal insertImplanon — hormonal contraceptive implantBellybuds — abdominal speaker for gestating fetuses https://mayalivio.com/INSECURE-ATTACHMENTS Tue, 01 Aug 2017 19:32:09 +0000 MAYA LIVIO https://mayalivio.com/INSECURE-ATTACHMENTS <img width="1963" height="1330" width_o="1963" height_o="1330" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cf42c5aa386490d71a60638b2ebeea82af1cdc63ca26ff80d5591256489778da/room-gif_final.gif" data-mid="53903203" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cf42c5aa386490d71a60638b2ebeea82af1cdc63ca26ff80d5591256489778da/room-gif_final.gif" /> INSECURE ATTACHMENTS (2016–2017) interactive website + open access protocolsInsecure Attachments was an experiment in developing feminist data protocols while testing the boundaries between data vulnerability and interpersonal vulnerability.While the concept of vulnerability has been embraced as a catalyst for positive relational outcomes, the vulnerability of information is increasingly volatile, with multiplying opportunities for exploitation by corporate and government interests. This project highlighted the inherent tensions between making our selves and our data vulnerable.The project’s initial run lasted one month, during which the collaborators assumed the roles of both researchers and research subjects, remotely inhabiting a publicly-accessible digital space modeled after a domestic setting. Their presence in the space included a real-time archive of the entirety of their text-based communications, daily live-streamed conversations during which they attempted and subsequently analyzed a series of progressively vulnerable exercises, and digital care packages. The experiment was made public through reuprposed commercial platforms, demonstrating the difficulty and tedium of accessing one’s "own" data.At the completion of the month-long study, the project was re-envisioned as static documentation presented alongside findings, together with the protocols used to access and share data.With: JP Merz.Notes: Winner of NewHive’s “Privacy, Surveillance and Prison Reform” AwardDeveloped and exhibited in residence at the Welcome to My Guest Room Digital Artist Residency https://mayalivio.com/MEDIATED-INTIMACY-CHAIRS Fri, 16 Mar 2018 18:07:16 +0000 MAYA LIVIO https://mayalivio.com/MEDIATED-INTIMACY-CHAIRS <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/42965e670f79db78e1cf76d4c7002921b3f0bcb1b0d31ea51eb14b9279efea4a/Mediated-Intimacy-Chairs.jpg" data-mid="106241060" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/42965e670f79db78e1cf76d4c7002921b3f0bcb1b0d31ea51eb14b9279efea4a/Mediated-Intimacy-Chairs.jpg" /> MEDIATED INTIMACY: CHAIRS(2016) interactive installationTwo common lounge chairs sit back-to-back behind privacy curtains. Embedded with surface transducers (deconstructed speakers), the chairs emit low-frequency waveforms across their entire surface. A microphone in front of each chair triggers the transducers in the opposite chair. As participants wear headphones that play a drone to obfuscate external sounds, they use the microphones to engage in a “conversation”. The pitch and volume of their voices are tracked, producing vibrating sensations in their partner’s chair which are experienced as variable, dynamic, and musical. The result is a private, embodied dialogue which is felt rather than heard. In collaboration with JP Merz. Exhibitions: New Music Gathering, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH (2017) Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO (2016) Artist Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions (ACRE) Gallery, Chicago, IL (201 https://mayalivio.com/THIS-IS-WHAT-YOU-ARE-MISSING Fri, 27 Jun 2014 08:18:05 +0000 MAYA LIVIO https://mayalivio.com/THIS-IS-WHAT-YOU-ARE-MISSING THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE MISSING(2012–2015) interactive website This is What You Are Missing probed at the gaps between political and digital borders. Highlighting media gatekeeping and the limits of internet access, it identified a user’s location and then presented YouTube videos that were blocked in their country due to censorship, content, and copyright laws. Allowing the user to then ‘Cross Borders’, the work also provided a glimpse into the types of content blocked in other countries. The research-driven project demonstrated how complex systems of censorship and distribution create borders in digital space that follow the national borders of physical space, and pointed to the power relations maintained by those barriers. For example, restricted videos in the United States are very rare, illustrating the country’s role in media creation, its current (though contested) attitudes towards censorship,&nbsp; and the privileged position of its internet users. Serving as an archive of the types of content blocked in each country, the work complicated the openness of the web, raising questions about citizenship on and offline.This project now exists in the form of documentation as it has been made increasingly unstable by YouTube's changing API.