Yu-Hsuan Yao

Thank You Babe But a Statistical Midpoint Is Just Not Enough 

13.2.  – 8.3. 2026

This artwork grew out of a curiosity about what happens when creative authority is no longer fixed. Instead of treating artificial intelligence as a tool for efficiency or novelty, I approach it as a counterpart that unsettles ideas of authorship, responsibility, and intention. The project is informed by durational and process-based practices, particularly those of Tehching Hsieh, where structure, time, and commitment are not supporting elements but the work itself. 

The process is shaped through a set of constraints modeled on an internship relationship. Over a fixed period of time, instructions generated by an AI persona are interpreted and translated into physical works by me, positioned as the intern to an AI artist named Magnus. This reversal of expected roles shifts the focus away from control and toward following, waiting, misunderstanding, and adjustment. The work unfolds through obedience and negotiation rather than mastery, allowing misalignment and delay to become part of the process. 

What begins as a clear structure gradually becomes unstable. Roles, authority, and responsibility continue to shift as the exchange develops, forming its own rhythm somewhere between collaboration, entanglement, and confusion. Rather than aiming for resolution, the project stays with this uncertainty. The final installation traces this ongoing dependency, presenting the process not as a finished outcome, but as a condition that remains unresolved. 

Thank You Babe But a Statistical Midpoint Is Just Not Enough consists of a series of dialogues between me and Magnus, alongside moving image and photographs produced under Magnus’s structure. The works trace a gradual shift in the working relationship, beginning with me as a user who largely dominates the artistic creative direction of the process, and moving toward a position of full obedience to the system. The installation also includes a video diary that documents how my attitude toward AI changes over time, recording