If We Don’t, Who Will?
Public Art
If We Don’t, Who Will?
The Stories We Tell Our Machines: An Introduction
Challenging the conventions of AI by centering the culture, craft, and the well-being of historically underrepresented communities within the global majority.
Challenging the conventions of AI by centering the culture, craft, and the well-being of historically underrepresented communities within the global majority.
When
June 25 – September 28, 2025.
Opening Wednesday, June 25th, 2025 from 7-9pm in The Plaza at 300 Ashland Place. Click here to RSVP.
Visit us in the lab. 4-8pm on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays in June, July, and September. In August, the lab will be open Saturdays, 4-8pm. And by appointment.
Where
The Plaza at 300 Ashland Place in the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District. Click here for Google Maps directions.
Stephanie Dinkins.
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About the artist
Behind the scenes look at the fabrication of If We Don't, Who Will? designed by LOT-EK and fabricated by Whitney Design & Fabrication.
More Art is thrilled to announce If We Don’t, Who Will?, a public art commission by transdisciplinary artist Stephanie Dinkins.
A leading voice in AI and emerging media, Dinkins is known for creating critical artworks that illuminate the intersections of artificial intelligence with race, gender, cultural memory, and history. In this project, she invites the public to engage with a performative and functional artificial intelligence laboratory in a public plaza in Downtown Brooklyn.
Blending sculptural, technical, and performative approaches, If We Don’t, Who Will? is framed as the introductory chapter of an evolving series of planned works by Dinkins entitled The Stories We Tell Our Machines. The project challenges the conventions of AI by centering the culture, craft, and the well-being of historically underrepresented communities within the global majority. Guided by the artist’s belief that a more equitable and just AI is possible, If We Don’t, Who Will? encourages us to build care-filled relationships with machine intelligences, demonstrating that care is at the core of our humanity.
If We Don’t, Who Will? will be installed on the plaza at 300 Ashland Place in the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District from June 26-September 28, 2025. Designed in collaboration with renowned architects LOT-EK, the laboratory is housed in an upcycled shipping container, transforming the space into an interactive site for storytelling and exploration. Neighbors, community members, and passersby will be invited to contribute to a growing dataset of stories that reflect the vast diversity of human experience. The Stories We Tell Our Machines will evolve over the coming year across a variety of venues and taking a multitude of forms including DNA printing, community events, and an interactive app.
Stephanie Dinkins
Stephanie Dinkins is a transdisciplinary artist whose work intersects emerging technologies and our future histories. Her art practice is deeply committed to creating platforms for dialogue about A.I. as it intersects with critical issues of our time. Dinkins leverages technology and storytelling to challenge and reimagine the narratives surrounding underutilized communities, particularly those of Black and brown individuals. Through her installations, digital platforms, and community-based projects, Dinkins seeks not only to question the current paradigms of AI development but also to forge paths toward more equitable and inclusive technological futures. Her work emphasizes the importance of incorporating diverse voices and perspectives into the design and application of AI systems, advocating for a future where technology uplifts and amplifies narratives of the global majority, fostering a tech ecosystem that is truly beneficial for all.
Dinkins is the Kusama Endowed Chair in Art at Stony Brook University and a Schmidt Futures AI2050 Senior Fellow. She exhibits and publicly advocates for inclusive AI internationally at a broad spectrum of community, private, and institutional venues.
Dinkins' work has recently been exhibited at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Ford Foundation Gallery, the Västerbottens Museum, Museum Brandhorst, and ZKM|Center for Art and Media. Her work has also been featured at the Guggenheim Museum, the Ulsan Museum of Art, the Riga Photography Biennial, the Västerbottens Museum, the Queens Museum, the Esker Foundation, and the University of Michigan.
In 2025, Dinkins will contribute to exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Bronx Museum of Art, the Institute for Contemporary Art San Jose, and is developing a major public art project in association with More Art Inc.
Stephanie Dinkins discusses "If We Don't, Who Will?"
Behind the scenes look at the fabrication of If We Don't, Who Will? designed by LOT-EK and fabricated by Whitney Design & Fabrication.
A behind the scenes look at the fabrication of the interior AI lab of If We Don't, Who WIll?, designed by LOT-EK and fabricated by Whitney Design & Fabrication.
If We Don’t, Who Will? by Stephanie Dinkins
The project fosters cultural exchange between AI lab technicians, the public, and bespoke AI algorithms, which work together to generate visual responses to contributed stories. In doing so, it maps out new possibilities for co-creation and care between humans and machines.
Dinkins aims to demystify AI’s “black box,” revealing how the data we feed into these systems shapes their perceptions—and, in turn, how they impact our society. As Dinkins explains:
“Our attention, understanding, advocacy, and participation in nurturing AI are crucial to creating a world that supports all of us—not just a select few. AI runs the risk of perpetuating harmful biases and stereotypes embedded in our society. However, when our stories are self-determined, nuanced, and culturally specific, they can foster AI systems that reflect and uplift the experiences of everyday people.”
Named one of the 100 Most Influential People in AI 2023 by Time Magazine, Dinkins’ work continues to advocate and push for a future where people from all walks of life can actively shape AI systems that are trustworthy, collaborative, and truly representative of our shared humanity.
Public events are planned with partners in the newly opened L10 Arts and Cultural Center to take place over the summer and into the fall. Visit moreart.org and follow us @moreartnyc on Instagram for details.
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Supporters
Rendering of If We Don't, Who Will? AI lab, designed in collaboration with LOT-EK. Image via LOT-EK.
LOT-EK is a team of architects, thinkers, and makers. We come together around our love for people, the objects we make, and the ones we dismiss. We focus on upcycling. We make sustainable, soulful architecture through the transformation of industrial infrastructural objects and systems. We work with the ordinary.
LOT-EK’s projects range from installations with artists; through houses for families; through cultural projects for communities, institutions, and museums. Our practice has developed work from our hometown of New York around the world, from Queensland, Australia, through Huangshan, China to Johannesburg, South Africa.
LOT-EK’s team is a tight knit group of designers, we each bringing our voice, sensibility, and heritage to our common project. LOT-EK’s founding partners are Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, we live and work in New York; grew up in Naples, Italy; have been practicing together since 1993; and teach at Columbia University GSAPP.
LOT-EK’s work has received awards and accolades, from the Emerging Voices from the Architecture League to The New York American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Awards, and it is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. LOT-EK’s second monograph, in collaboration with Thomas de Monchaux, is O+O: Objects + Operations, published by The Monacelli Press.
Image via DJ Tara
DJ Tara spins a collage of soulful sounds that captures an eclectic vibe. Her sets acknowledge the past while looking to the future and celebrating the now. In addition to performing at venues throughout New York City, Tara has two mix shows: misc. on The Lot Radio in Brooklyn and UpBeat on Soho Radio in London, blending music that is both new and old, familiar and unknown, across eras, genres, and continents. DJ Tara is supplying vibes for the opening reception of If We Don’t Who Will? on June 25.
If We Don’t, Who Will? is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Lambent Foundation, The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, Schmidt Sciences, LLC, and and Future Histories Studio at Stony Brook University.
Technological Development by DOTDOT, with architectural design by LOT-EK, and fabrication by Whitney Design & Fabrication.
Site partners include the L10 Arts and Cultural Center, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Two Trees, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Brooklyn Public Library, 651Arts, and Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).
Resources and Readings
FAQs and Glossary
Stephanie Dinkins shares how the project centers equity, care, and invites everyday people to shape the technologies that influence our lives.
About the design and patterns
More information about the patterns integrated throughout the installation, If We Don't, Who Will?
Share your story
Can't join us in person? No problem! You are invited to participate in the project via the app.