Machine Civilization (2025)

When humans first carved symbols into stone, history took shape, thoughts were passed down, and civilization was born. This inspires Machine Civilization, which explores the possibilities of language sovereignty and non-human cultures that may continually evolve beyond us. This artwork imagines robot observers as the “first recorder” of an emerging civilization. Driven by mechanical curiosity, it roams the city, endlessly identifying, collecting, and documenting natural and man-made objects, scenes, and behaviors.
These visual fragments are transmitted in real time to a closed AI Parliament, where multiple artificial agents—each with its own evolutionary strategy and language model—analyze, debate, and negotiate. In doing so, they gradually generate their first scripts, which continuously transform and expand. Ultimately, these evolving inscriptions are etched into ‘Stele Zero,’ symbolizing the first stone of an autonomous machine civilization. Machine Civilization poses a question: when machines start to inscribe their own evolving narratives, how does this reshape our understanding of meaning, memory, and future agency?

Exhibition_Ars Electronica _ 2025
Art Gallery _ SIGGRAPH Asia _ 2025

Artist: Jia-Qi Shi
Technical Support: Yixiong Wang, Jiawen Zheng, Hourun Wang, Yufeng Zeng

Jiaqi Shi_Jaki

Machine Civilization (2025)