Identity in a digital age

When we interact with large language models such as ChatGPT or DALL-E, those algorithms generate responses based on our text inputs, not us as people. As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to permeate everyday life, new questions about human identity and interaction begin to form. What matters more: who we are as people, or the collection of data that make up our digital self? 

The broader theme of digital vs. physical identity in an increasingly AI-infused world is the topic of “A[fter] I: Algorithmic Identities,” the 2025 wintersession residency for Conflux, an art-technology collaboration student organization sponsored by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This year’s residency, the third since Conflux formed during the 2022-23 school year, featured seven installations at the FAS CAMLab Cave that used technology to expand on artistic and philosophical ideas about how identity has changed in the wake of AI. Located in Cambridge, the CAMLab Cave is an installation site for digital, immersive and multimedia art projects.

“I got really excited by the idea that I could use all the technical skills I’d developed over the last few years to express my own ideas and feelings, and to create an experience for other people,” said resident Kevin Yang, a first-year student studying mechanical engineering and philosophy. “Creating an interactive experience that can instill some sort of feeling into attendees as they move through this space is something I’m drawn to.”

Yang’s project, Cosmic Imprints, sought to transform individual identity into a sense of global connection. By scanning a QR code, visitors were taken to a website that scanned their palm. Those scans were then converted into topographical segments, the natural ridges and lines in the palm becoming mountains and valleys. Once enough scans were collected, they were combined into a digital planet, which was then projected onto a wall in the CAMLab Cave. Yang and co-creator Fadil Cantave, an MIT graduate student, also brought 3D-printed versions of previous palm scans, each one converted to look like topographic regions. Applied math concentrator Romy Aran and Harvard Graduate School of Design student Peiwen Huang also co-created the installation.

“We wanted to highlight the unique individual experiences that we all have, and then deliver them in an interesting form of visualization,” Yang said. “And then we wanted to create a sublime collective feeling from all these unique individual experiences.”

Ida Chen, a second-year student studying statistics and the history of art and architecture and Conflux board member, had never before worked with the software she used in Tangible Echoes, the installation she co-designed with computer science concentrator Adam Mohamed and Rhode Island School of Design graduate Raven Hu. Setting up her installation to look like a living room, Chen also used two laptops’ cameras to detect movement, which were then converted into abstract shapes using a programming platform. These shapes were then projected onto tulle sheets hanging throughout the exhibit, creating free-floating, ghost-like images meant to represent memories.

“The idea is that when you live in a space with your loved one, it becomes imbued with a lot of memories,” she said. But when that person passes away, the memories don’t leave.”

Chen added, “I come from a fine arts background, so there were a lot of technologies I’d had vaguely heard of but didn’t know how to use. The good thing about this residency was that it had very strong, technically focused elements. Everyone comes in with these large artistic ideas, and this residency taught us how to break them down and manifest them with the right tools.”

For Ellen Pan, a second-year mechanical engineering and studio art concentrator, the residency was a chance to learn how to use virtual reality software. Her project, ArtShift, fragmented an image of Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” and the fragments were then projected onto a VR headset. By changing their orientation within the room, whoever is wearing the headset is able to reposition the fragments and reform the image.

“I wanted to do the winter residency because I’ve always been very interested in visual art, but I wanted to have a better medium to apply it,” Pan said. “I’ve done painting and other traditional artforms for a really long time, but there are always new technologies that are on the rise, like VR. I can see how art can interact with new technologies. They seem like two fields that don’t really intersect, but Conflux is a really great place for you to put them together.”

Previous residencies explored the space where technology and art fuse, and how technology changes our perceptions of the world and each other. The two-week residency also includes workshops designed to broaden both technical and artistic skills.

“Conflux is very interdisciplinary in nature, so there aren’t many opportunities to explore this kind of learning through a curriculum,” said director Sofia Chen, a third-year mechanical engineering concentrator. “This is such a unique time to come together and learn from people you might never have otherwise met.”