SPECULATION, LIKE NATURE, ABHORS A VACUUM (SF)

Ken Goldberg & TIFFANY SHLAIN 

Edition 1/3 + 2AP

​Video. Run time: 4 mins

LA Version 1/3 + 2AP 2024, SF Version 1/3 + 2AP 2025

​

Inquire on availability and pricing cc@cclarkgallery.com 

​

A bird’s-eye view pans slowly down four iconic SF streets with contrasting tree species and shade disparity: Minnesota–Jackson–Eddy–Mission. The tonality and pacing reference Ed Ruscha’s Streets of Los Angeles archive (1965–present). The artists rotate Ruscha’s point of view (POV) from the side to overhead to present a portrait of SF that shifts emphasis from architecture to nature. The first site-specific version of this artwork, Speculation, Like Nature, Abhors a Vacuum (LA), features four Los Angeles streets. The title is from Spinoza who adapted it from Aristotle: “Nature abhors a vacuum.”

 

The artists worked with researchers at UC Berkeley, MIT, and Google DeepMind to develop new AI classification algorithms to identify trees from multi-modal sources including aerial and street view imagery from Google Maps and Google Earth, as well as public and manually-collected tree census data. The data was analyzed with new AI techniques such as graphical neural networks. The result is a geographically and biologically accurate depiction of treescapes along four major thoroughfares. Goldberg and Shlain created this site-specific video artwork in collaboration with animator Una Lorenzen; Google DeepMind researcher Jonathan Huang; MIT professor Sara Beery; Tufts University student Quinn Glickman; and UC Berkeley students Abby O’Neill, Sandeep Mukherjee, and Ria Jain.