Gavin Brown: Seen/ Unseen
How does a machine perceive and process the world?
Gavin Brown: Seen/ Unseen
Saturday 22 November 2025 to Sunday 15 February 2026 at the Usher Gallery
Free entry, open Thursdays to Mondays from 10am to 4pm.
How does a machine perceive and process the world? The expanding field of AI rapidly processes immense quantities of data, reshaping fields of research and creativity at unprecedented speeds. But is this new form of existence to be embraced, treated with caution, or resisted?
In Seen/Unseen, artist Gavin Brown invites you to explore these questions through an immersive installation featuring three purpose-built sculptures of androids. Each responds to the presence of visitors in different ways, using machine-vision AI systems to observe and interpret your presence. Their responses, usually hidden within surveillance technologies, are displayed on the surrounding walls, exposing the mechanics of machine perception and visual data processing.
Seen/Unseen responds to the rapid expansion of AI, particularly its embodiment in robotics, military hardware, and surveillance systems, raising philosophical and ethical questions about the deployment of machines that can see, know, and act upon the world.
Brown describes the android/AI pairings as his “Frankensteinian collaborators in this project; they, along with exhibition visitors, are my subjects, observers and performers. The entangled dynamics and tensions between humans and machines within this installation will be unique for each encounter, action and interaction.’
Seen/Unseen is Gavin Brown’s first solo exhibition. Alongside sculpture, animation and digital media, his practice examines how artificial intelligence (machine learning and perception) is providing creative entities with novel ways to learn, innovate and communicate. Brown is currently undertaking his PhD, interrogating the intersection between humans and AI in art, at the University of Lincoln. The exhibition will inform his research and feed into his work.
Event programme: Artist Talk and workshop with our young people’s group, the Usher Young Creatives. Details to be confirmed.
*Please note that no recording or data produced during the interactions will be stored; the androids are responsive in the moment, making each interaction unique and temporary. By the time you leave the gallery, your interaction will have disappeared.