The Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai opened "Rindon Johnson: Best Synthetic Answer," an exhibition exploring geographies of the Pacific Ocean using artificial intelligence, on Friday and running through April 2025.

At the exhibition's heart is a video installation depicting the artist Johnson's digital avatar "swimming" from his birthplace of San Francisco to Shanghai over the exhibition's seven-month duration.

Each day, viewers can watch the virtual swimmer cut through AI-generated seascapes that shift in real-time based on actual oceanic and weather data from the Pacific.

"How does a Black American, raised on the edge of the Pacific, move through the ocean to reach Shanghai?" Johnson pondered. His answer is to "swim" there using artificial intelligence.

The "best synthetic answer" in this exhibition refers to the simulated outputs created by large language models such as ChatGPT. Johnson's works blend text, video, animation, and other media to meditate on themes of time, space, ownership, freedom, autonomy, and humanity's environmental impact.

"During the seven months, we'll explore flows, folds, waves, and depth — all relating to the ocean," said X Zhu-Nowell, the Rockbund's artistic director. "We need a new narrative of time to contemplate where we are situated."

Alongside the video installation, the exhibition will present works made of ephemeral materials such as stained glass, luminous plants, and cowhide scraps, in a bid to discuss concepts of ownership, freedom, autonomy, exploitation, value, and waste.

In parallel, the museum will launch a complementary public program inspired by Fijian-Tongan scholar Epeli Hau'ofa. It encourages re-evaluating Shanghai through an oceanic worldview with performances, lectures, workshops, and more by scholars, artists, and cultural figures from the Pacific region.

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