The Zizi Show

The Zizi Project is an ongoing collection of works exploring the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and drag performance.

Drag challenges gender and explores otherness, while AI, often mystified as a concept and tool, is complicit in reproducing social bias. Zizi combines these themes through a deepfake, synthesised drag identity created using machine learning. The project explores what AI can teach us about drag, and what drag can teach us about AI.

Searching for poetry and narrative in the success and failures of AI systems, Jake Elwes’ practice makes use of the sophistication of machine learning, while finding illuminating qualities in its limitations. Elwes seeks to queer datasets, demystifying and subverting predominantly cisgender and straight AI systems.