Disruptive Cultures

"Disruptive Cultures: Affect and Effects of Social Media" explores how social media can provoke strong emotional reactions in users and has significant cultural and social implications. The exhibition features artists who reflect on, question, critique, and utilize the power of social media. Many of these artists take advantage of key characteristics of social media, such as interface design and AI algorithms, to enhance engagement and evoke emotional responses from viewers. While most artists focus on existing commercial platforms, some create new forms of engagement to encourage viewers to consider the impact of these platforms. 

The exhibition opening will be accompanied by a symposium featuring participating artists, along with discussants from diverse fields including engineering and the philosophy of science. The symposium offers insight into the artists’ interests and working processes, while also addressing the broader impacts and consequences raised by the exhibition’s themes.

A.I. Symposium - April 4, 2026 10:30am-12:00pm
CAC Colloquium Room 3201 
Moderated by David Familian, Artistic Director and Curator
Chaired by Zebulon Zang, Assistant Curator
 
Program:
 
Keynote Speakers: James Owen Weatherall and Cailin O’Connor, Chancellor's Professors of Logic & Philosophy of Science, School of Social Sciences

Discussants: Athina Markopoulou, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Samueli School of Engineering and Dorothy R. Santos, Assistant Professor of Teaching; Art, Justice, and Digital, UC Santa Cruz

Respondents: Jennifer Gradecki & Derek Curry, Ben Grosser, Casey Kaufmann, Maya Man and Sarah Rothberg.
 

Disruptive Cultures is supported by The Beall Family Foundation, the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, and UCI Office of Research.