Bogna Konior and Xin Wang Unpack “Machine Decision is Not Final”

Join us for an evening with art historian and curator Xin Wang, and author and professor Bogna Konior. AAAinA is honored to host art historian and curator Xin Wang and author and professor Bogna Konior for an evening of presentations and a conversation speaking to the recent publication, Machine Decision Is Not Final: China and the History and Future of Artificial Intelligence. Published in 2025, this collection brings together historians, media theorists, science-fiction writers, philosophers, and artists from China and elsewhere to reexamine the nation's intense engagement with AI, moving beyond the clichés that still dominate contemporary debate. Konior will share an introduction on the book followed by Wang’s presentation of artistic examples and interventions. Our two speakers will join afterwards for a conversation on the larger implications and theories shared in and beyond the text. Registration through our Eventbrite portal is required for all AAAinA programming. Suggested donation is $5. The minimum required donation is $1. Light refreshments will be provided. Programs begin promptly, so please arrive 5-10 minutes early. Bios: Bogna Konior is Assistant Professor of Media Theory at NYU Shanghai’s Interactive Media department and the AI & Culture Center. She is the author of The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet (Polity Press, 2025), a short, experimental book at the intersection of research into extraterrestrial and artificial intelligence; and co-editor of Machine Decision is not Final: China, and the History and Future of Artificial Intelligence (Urbanomic, 2025). Xin Wang is a New York-based art historian and curator. She held curatorial and educational positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art, and wrote her PhD dissertation on Soviet Hauntology at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She served as the chief curator of the 4th art and technology themed biennial program—titled “To Your Eternity”—at Beijing’s Today Art Museum in fall 2023, and is Curatorial Director at Pace Gallery. A Warhol Foundation’s Arts Writers Grant recipient, she has published widely; essays such as “Asian Futurism and the Non-Other” have been widely circulated, translated, and taught. Her exhibition “Thucydides Fever Dream” is currently on view at the Hill Art Foundation through December 19, 2026. Cover Image: Photo of a spread from “Machine Decision is not Final: China, and the History and Future of AI” (Urbanomic, 2025) The event is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, and other foundations and individuals.