Alternative Models: The Small, the Specific, and From the Majority
Featuring Sam Heckle, Ari Melenciano, Claudia Tomateo Chang, and Taeyoon Choi
F(r)ictions: Creative Work in an Age of AI {2026 symposium}
After the third panel, "Alternative Models: The Small, the Specific, and From the Majority," concluded, its four panelists, Sam Heckle, Ari Melenciano, Claudia Tomateo Chang, and Taeyoon Choi, kept the conversation going, documented by this recording. Where the first two panels centered on topics related to labor, contracts, and law, this one asks a question that no legislation can settle: what should stay illegible to a machine at all?
Claudia connects this to an idea from indigenous scholarship, the practice of refusal, choosing not to share everything rather than assuming more openness is always better. But what does refusal actually look like for people whose work depends on being seen? Sam reflected on tech fads, a trend of younger generations rebelling against AI, and the discomfort of watching students lose their slow, frustrating process of learning to code. Ari introduced a framework she calls "Incomputable Intelligence" that both experiences the limitations of machines and, in effect, reveals the parts of a person a model simply cannot hold. She has expanded the practice of "Critical Imagination" to the age of generative AI as a framework that encourages creators to operate inside the contradictions they experience due to AI, both challenging what they fear about the technology while also leaving room to experiment and discover. Taeyoon carries that same thought into his own field, arguing that art is built to hold contradiction and outlast a moment like this one in a way that no quick fix ever could, all while insisting the threats themselves are real and worth taking seriously.
What does it mean to treat contradiction as a strength rather than something to resolve? What happens to a breakthrough once the struggle that used to earn it disappears? Watch the video for the discussion, and review the Symposium Proceedings for the full panel conversation that took place earlier.
At: The New School, New York City
On: Friday, May 1, 2026
Sponsored by: The New School's Office of University Initiatives
Video Production: Tatiana Stolpovskaya
Selected Works
We investigate how AI transforms the conditions, politics, and value of creative work.
