The debate surrounding the potential impacts of AI on myriad industries and our collective daily lives continues to rumble on. In the stone industry, AI is often viewed favourably as a means to improve ore and defect detection, increase cutting accuracy, and optimise logistics, to name a few. But a recent installation by Studio Above&Below explores an alternative, and altogether more poetic, relationship between stone and AI.

Central to the interactive exhibit are four stones sourced from the Scottish landscape during a recent field trip by studio founders Daria Jelonek and Perry-James Sugden. Visitors are invited to touch and even rearrange the stones, with each new combination creating an evolving digital landscape on neighbouring large-scale screens in real time.  Each of the stones and the ensuing imagery is taken from geologically significant sites in Scotland, where ancient stone carvings show early examples of symbolic data recording.

The idea is beautiful in its simplicity, yet striking in its delivery, with ambient field recordings made in the surrounding cliff tops adding to the calming atmosphere as new layers of digital stone are created, like the formation of sedimentary rocks. Speed is indeed of the essence, but unlike streamlined automated processes found in a quarry or mill, the emphasis is on slowing down and considering material provenance, as the duo explains:

“Drawing on principles of Slow Tech, Low Tech, Lo-TEK and traditional technology systems, the artwork employs accessible hardware and straightforward logic models like rule-based systems and decision trees. This approach avoids heavy computation and embraces simplicity, favouring essential tools and local materials.”

In reducing the complexity of AI, and symbolically linking it back to geological time, they spark a new discussion that asks us to question “where intelligence comes from, who it serves, and how we might build slower, deeper and therefore better systems together – systems that honour the past, serve the present, and safeguard the future.”

CREDITS

Concept & Development: Studio Above&below (Daria Jelonek, Perry-James Sugden) @studioaboveandbelow

Sound: Einar Fehrholz @einar_zuviel

Metal Work: Eddie Olin @eddieolin

Setup support: Kitmapper @kitmapper

Screens: Showtex @showtexinmotion

Documentation support: Ava Watson @avahw

Curator: Marc Barto @MarcBarto

Funded by: BRAID (University of Edinburgh) @braid

Further Research Support: UCL @ucl