Unboxed City invites visitors to consider the balance between technology and the inclusion of humans in the development of cities. It invites us to think about how AI can be integrated with human intelligence to create urban spaces that are not only technologically planned but also inclusive and reflective of communities’ heritage, cultures, and aspirations. teaches us how generative AI algorithms work by literally being immersed within one.

The large black box at the center of the exhibition references the notion of black-box algorithms, a concept first introduced in cybernetics referring to the inability to understand how systems/algorithms work. A totem in the center box holds four large screens playing multi- directional videos illustrating the process of neural networks—collecting, encoding, and decoding data, thereby transforming it into artificial intelligence. OverUnder designed the box, its interior, and the exhibition’s graphic identity. The exhibition is a collaboration between OverUnder and the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) at MIT.’

Photos by Chuck Choi.