Lazarus Chan – Poetics Policy

Inaugurating its new contemporary space, De Sarthe is pleased to present “Poetics Policy”, its first solo exhibition for Hong Kong-based artist Lazarus Chan. Featuring an interconnected body of multimedia and interactive artworks, the immersive exhibition explores the nature of policy-making and the intricate ways in which it manifests in art, machine intelligence, and reality. An imagined simulation of the future, the exhibition is host to a living system built by AI but governed by the artist. Within this space, the essence of art lies not in the generated texts or imagery, but the policies that shape their creation.

In AI development, the term “policy” refers to a function through which a trained AI agent uses to decide its next action based on the current state of its environment. In human terms, it is analogous to the neural pathways we form when learning to react through experience – we create policies that our minds retain for future occurrences, collectively building a framework that determines our behavior. Policy-making, then, is not restricted to governments or institutions, but is embedded in technology, life, even art as a response to its surrounding environment.

In the history of civilization, products of culture, such as art and technology, have always evolved along with the exploration and discovery of new landscapes. The artist believes that as man-made machines reach beyond where humanity can physically exist, the former must be embraced as a medium. Under this consciousness, the exhibition, using custom software developed by the artist, employs artificial intelligence as an agent of artmaking, wherein the artist becomes the creator, observer, as well as subject to the artwork.

Upon entering the gallery, a 10-meter projection floods the wall with a sea of coded text. In front of it is a solitary control panel and a long table staged with an array of flags. “In-Visible Projection” (2025) is an interactive installation that inspects the dialogue between the artist and a large language model (LLM). The work frames the exercise of drafting and interpreting policies as a creative process. With its immense volume, the projected dimension becomes a space where the creation itself becomes a barrier for the creator’s understanding. This reflective process is encapsulated by the flags on which are transcripts of the artist’s findings, retracing the artist’s journey in comprehending the very systems he has built. An interactive text box and a zoomed in view of the projected video can be found on the control panel, where viewers can submit their feedback. The data collected from the panel will subsequently be translated into new policies that will be assimilated into the projection.

Preceding the age of automation, code-writing had once been likened to composing poetry in its creative expression, nuanced language, and specific syntax. As AI brought ease to the process, lyricism remains in how we feed and train our machines. The most common interaction with intelligent machines begins with writing instructions and prompts – textual descriptions of the sensory experience we desire to create. It is no wonder then, that generative AI would be adapted into artistic practices, wherein the outputs are not just aesthetic objects but expressions of a culture in the making.

In “Scripting Me 24” (2024 – ), the artist draws a relationship between AI and another cultural object – the Chinese almanac (“Tung Shing”). Using his own everyday routine as the studied subject, he repurposed an AI model to use a digital guide, akin to the Tung Shing, to predict and advise on daily decisions. First conceived in 2024, the artwork was inspired by the artist’s experimentation with Alibaba’s Qwen model, when the open sourcing of which enabled an overwhelming influx of information and hyper-productivity that strained the mind and body, consequently creating the need for streamlined guidance. In this physical iteration, the digitally generated almanac is engraved onto steel plates and integrated with real reviews of Chan’s practice. The interplay between human versus AI feedback captures the tension where the artist lives between human judgments and machine suggestions.

A station set up with building blocks is situated in the center of the space. Titled “Distance of Understanding” (2025), the installation invites viewers to freely play with and rearrange the blocks, each engraved with English words, Traditional Chinese characters, and once again, motifs from the Tung Shing. Little beknownst, the interaction is being recorded and analyzed by pinhole cameras hidden in the artwork, the data of which is subsequently fed back to entrance video. Yet, there is a counterintuitive twist that underlies the artwork: the machine is deliberately inaccurate in its detection of information. Seeing the camera as the machine’s main access to its physical surroundings, the artist not only alludes to the remaining differences between man and technology, but their disparate ways of understanding the world.

“Stochastic Camera (version 0.4) – Weight of Witness” (2025) showcases the complex dynamics between perception, memory, and survival, using the machine as a metaphor for the self. Once again using a camera to capture the gallery’s real-time environment, the artwork’s 360-degree lens continuously shows the space as panoramas and utilizes an AI object detection model and LLM to interpret and respond to the relationships between visual elements. Operating in an unceasing state of observation, the machine generates adaptive policies that attempt to navigate and predict potential threats within its surroundings. Artificial intelligence grapples with the inability to forget or erase meanings, including those tied to perceived dangers. As such, the work portrays the machine as a witness burdened by its own survival mechanisms.

Two unsuspecting office cubicles, each illuminated by a desk lamp and a computer screen, awaits discovery. “Lives in Cubicles” (2025) is an interactive installation that invites the viewer to channel a remote analyst of space-travelling AI. Drawing real-time data from NASA’s Exoplanet Archive, the artwork features an operable interface that shows diaries written by AI agents as they visit different planets through the artist’s custom software. As if artefacts left from workers of previous shifts, regular office stationary and files containing notes taken by the artist are placed alongside the computer. The audience is asked to continue the job, tracking the progress of not only the AI’s interstellar expedition but, moreover, its emotional and psychological journey.

In front of the cubicles, “To Wonder” (2025) is a CCTV wall showing AI agents visiting the exhibition. Subsequent to the notion of digital proxies in extraterrestrial exploration and artmaking, the artist imagines the implementation of AI visitors and AI critics as well. An idea that may seem like a science fictional concept is actually closer than we think. In 2024, the operator of space probe Chang’e 6 dug the Chinese character 「中」 (meaning China) into the surface of the moon using his robot, and had thus inadvertently created a work of art existing outside of Earth. As art and artmaking extends beyond our physical reach, the artist asks: who will be there to see it?

Finally, in the gallery’s newly added screening room is a video artwork to conclude the exhibition. “Unnamed – Memories for Collect” (2025) is an AI-generated video that envisions a future where intelligent machines enable universal space exploration, offering new possibilities for artistic expression and challenge. The evocative narrative unfolds through the perspective of a humanoid machine, created in a dark industrial factory, who travels the alien landscapes of distant exoplanets. On its voyage, the machine reflects upon existence, solitude, and the pursuit of purpose beyond its programmed confines. In this imagined future, memory itself becomes a form of art – an archive of life’s experiences – preserved and collected.

Opening hours Tue-Sat 11 am – 7 pm

Exhibition Duration 20 September – 15 November 2025

www.desarthe.com

Location:
De Sarthe
2/F, Block A, Vita Tower, 29 Wong Chuk Hang Road
Hong Kong
China