Title: Sunrise Lecture by Antonio Somaini: “Latent Spaces: Generative AI, Art, and the Transformations of the Archive”
A theory of images and visual culture, today, needs a theory of latent spaces. In a historical phase in which images are captured, generated, modified, circulated, seen and described by or with the help of different kinds of AI models, we need to understand the crucial role played by an abstract mathematical construct whose epistemological, cultural and political implications could hardly be overestimated. Invisible to the eye yet shaping what can be seen, known, imagined and remembered, latent spaces have become a decisive cultural infrastructure which demands urgent critical attention.
The presentation will focus in particular on the ways in which the latent spaces of generative AI models participate in the mediation of the past and of cultural memory. As vast, matrix-like arrays of vectors within which billions of connected images and texts have been encoded, and out of which new images and new texts may be generated, latent spaces play a key role in the processing and the transformation of the massive quantities of visual and textual contents that are stored on the internet. Interpreted in this perspective, latent spaces may be understood as “meta-archives”: archives that are not meant for storing and retrieval, but rather for interpolation and transformation.
The presentation will include the discussion of recent projects by artists such as Trevor Paglen, Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst, Grégory Chatonsky, Erik Bullot, Gwenola Wagon & Pierre Cassou-Noguès.
Bio:
Antonio Somaini is Full Professor of Film, Media and Visual Culture Theory at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and a Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF). He is currently Visiting Professor at Harvard, in the department of Art, Film and Visual Studies. His recent research deals with the impact of AI on images, visual cultures and artistic practices in the fields of photography, film and video installations. He is the chief curator of the exhibition Le monde selon l’IA / The World Through AI which has been presented at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris between April and September 2025, and will now travel to museums in Brazil and Germany between late 2025 and 2026. Among his latest publications, the article “Algorithmic Images: Artificial Intelligence and Visual Culture” (Grey Room, 93, Fall 2023) and the text “A Theory of Latent Spaces” (The World Through AI, Paris: JBE Books / Jeu de Paume, 2025). He is currently preparing a book on latent spaces and a new exhibition on AI and contemporary art at the MAAT (Musem of Art, Architecture and Technology) in Lisbon.