Researchers from Queen Mary University of London are among the contributors to a major international exhibition exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping the balance between
technology and human decision-making.
Opening on 13 March 2026 at Bildmuseet, the exhibition “AI and the Paradox of Agency” brings together artists and researchers from around the world to examine the growing influence of AI across society.
Among the featured contributors is the Planetary Portals research collective, co-founded by Kathryn Yusoff and Kerry Holden, both based in the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at Queen Mary. The collective also includes Casper Laing‑Ebbensgaard of the University of East Anglia and British-Nigerian artist Michael Salu.
The exhibition will showcase elements of the group’s installation “I am in your dreams, but you are not in mine,” first presented at The Photographers’ Gallery in 2025.
The installation investigates how artificial intelligence systems interpret historical archives. Using colonial-era photographic collections as source material, the work highlights how machine-learning technologies can inadvertently replicate the social and political inequalities embedded in historical datasets.
Dr Kerry Holden and Professor Kathryn Yusoff said: “Our installation explores how artificial intelligence systems interpret historical archives and the colonial histories embedded within them. By revisiting these images through artistic and critical practice, we want to ask what kinds of power structures are reproduced when machine learning technologies are trained on the past.”
The exhibition brings together 25 artists from across the globe, presenting installations, films and digital artworks that examine the ethical, political and environmental consequences of artificial intelligence.
At its core, AI and the Paradox of Agency asks a pressing question for the digital age: who truly holds power when human decisions increasingly rely on automated systems?
Running until January 2027, the exhibition offers visitors a deeper look at the complex and evolving relationship between technology, society and the environment—and the role humans continue to play in shaping it. Photo by Ewan Munro from London, UK, Wikimedia commons.