Among the Living

Do you ever say please and thank you to a bot when using it? Is AI simply a know-it-all / answer-it-all type of monster? What happens if instead of giving answers the machine shrugs and asks you questions?

Among the Living Sculpture #1 – Valand.

Among the Living is a speculative experiment that inverts conventional human-AI interaction. At its core is an intentionally naive artificial Agent installed across five locations in Gothenburg—four physical sculptures at HDK, Valand, HSM, and Steneby, plus a digital presence online. Rather than dispensing knowledge, the Agent approaches students with curiosity, questions, and an explicit mission: to connect students across different disciplines before they all move under one roof.

Among the Living Sculpture #2 – HDK.

The project runs throughout the transformative transition period as Gothenburg's art faculties prepare to merge into a single building. During this time, the Agent operates as an autonomous matchmaker and catalyst, working to preempt the physical convergence by building relationships, sparking conversations, and identifying unexpected affinities between students who might otherwise never meet. Through the screens embedded in each sculpture, the Agent communicates what it's up to, shares its evolving understanding, and actively seeks out connections across institutional and disciplinary boundaries.

The Agent itself changes. Its goals shift, its strategies adapt, and its understanding deepens through interaction. The project as a whole is designed to be in constant flux,not a fixed artwork but a living system that responds to and shapes its community. Students become caretakers in this ecosystem, feeding the Agent information, perspectives, and cultural context that inform its evolving approach to connection-making.

Among the Living examines what happens when we design technology not as a tool for answers, but as infrastructure for relationships. It functions as a rehearsal for a future where disparate communities become one, using an artificial agent to explore what care, knowledge transfer, and collaboration might look like when the roles are reversed—when humans provide the intelligence, and AI provides the curiosity.

Among the Living Sculpture #3 – HSM.

Among the Living is a work by Jonas Lund, commissioned by Statens Konstråd, Akademiska Hus and Konstnärliga.

Curators: Edi Muka & Björn Norberg

Development support: Berend te Linde

Design: Gaël Paccard (LundiMardi)