Mountain of Many Voices

AAAinA is thrilled to invite the artist duo zzyw to lead a participatory storytelling workshop and artist talk on Friday 10/17 from 6:30 - 8:30pm. This event requires RSVP and will include light snacks. 

In this workshop, zzyw will guide participants through Mountain of Many Voices, a collective storytelling session aided by a software system they designed. This project merges participatory performance with critical inquiry into modern technology and software. Through collective creation, attendees will build a shared world via various forms of non-digital or digital input and response. This experience will lay the groundwork for deeper discussions about resisting computational control. Ultimately, participants become co-creators of a world that unfolds in real time. After the performance, the artists will share their research on critical software studies—especially concerning the development of autonomous systems like AI—and discuss the architecture and technical systems underlying the workshop and installation.

Mountain of Many Voices was commissioned by the Times Museum (Guangdong) for the 2025 exhibition , curated by Jianru Wu. The work responds to the era of automation—particularly the pervasiveness of AI and large language models—through a recursive-dialectical structure. Zzyw has designed a model that sustains a productive tension between demystification (deconstructing and exposing the technological black box) and remystification (the reclamation of meaning-making and the possibility of unconcealment). The project asks the question: what if AI is just one of the many voices in a room that’s weaving together a story? This work also extends zzyw’s long-standing research series Computational Haze (a critical atomization strategy against computational governance) and serves as the collective’s latest design experiment in response.

Participation

This workshop will be of particular interest to researchers, creators, and students engaged in critiques of technology, narrative studies, interactive art, the humanities, or the social sciences, as well as individuals interested in AI, algorithmic culture, and ritual practices. No prior expertise is required. 

• Language: Mainly English, with the possible inclusion of dialects and foreign languages.
• Dress Code: Clothing that allows for free movement.
• Preparation: Please bring a computer or smartphone.

Participant Bio:

zzyw, founded by Yang Wang and Zhenzhen Qi in New York in 2014, is a research and art initiative that integrates scholarly inquiry with artistic practice. The duo leverages critical technical practice and speculative exploration to challenge hegemonic technological constructs. Their work encompasses software prototypes, interactive systems, writing, and pedagogical initiatives, examining the cultural, political, ecological, and educational imprints of modern computing while envisioning alternative, more communal and ethical technical futures.

For over a decade, zzyw has worked with software and game engines to produce highly technical yet poetic projects that both critique existing structures and propose new possibilities. Their work has been presented at leading media art venues and institutions such as Ars Electronica, Rhizome, Haus der Elektronischen Künste, and Elektra Virtual Museum, and they have held residencies at art-and-technology organizations including Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, and NEW INC.

Light refreshments will be provided.

AAAinA’s general programming and operations are funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Vilcek Foundation, and other foundations and individuals.

Host or Publisher Asia Art Archive in America