“Encoded Gazes: Women of Color on Bias, Power, and Possibility in AI” will focus on women of color critiques and approaches to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Framed through the lens of women of color, this panel interrogates the inherited biases embedded in AI systems, from facial recognition and data training sets to the aesthetic tropes of generative art. Through visual works and critical reflection, the speakers explore how identity, mythology, queerness, and resistance can become tools for subverting dominant technological narratives.

Moderated by Dr. Ana Briz, Assistant Director and Curator of Exhibitions at the AD&A Museum, panelists include artist Kira Xonorika and researcher Dr. Haewon Jeong from the UCSB Center for Responsible Machine Learning. Presented by the AD&A Museum, this panel is part of Brave New Work, a 3-day symposium organized by Brandwell Arts, that will feature artist commissions, lectures, and exhibitions throughout Santa Barbara and Goleta.

Kira Xonorika (Guarani) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Tovaangar (Los Angeles, California), working across generative AI, film, robotics, fashion, sculpture, performance, and literature.

Haewon Jeong is Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Jeong received her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (’20), where her thesis laid key foundations for coded computing by applying information theory to design reliable large-scale computing systems.