Rashaad Newsome’s art exists in a space that plays with surrealism, futurism, and resistance. The multidisciplinary artist has created video works, collage, and sculpture, but in Assembly, we follow Newsome as he prepares for an ambitious exhibit of the same name that controversially incorporates artificial intelligence.
Co-directed by Newsome and Johnny Symons, Assembly gives the audience a peek behind the creative process of the sprawling art exhibit, also named “Assembly.” The documentary uses interviews with the artist and his collaborators, as well as animated segments and clips from Newsome’s past video art pieces, to chronicle the journey of the exhibit. In 2022, Newsome used the space at the Park Avenue Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall in New York City to create a distinctly Black and queer space that had a three-pronged purpose: host decolonization workshops, exhibit Newsome’s artworks, and serve as a performance space. The main goal of the exhibit was to create a space of resistance, education, and joy through art – accomplished in no small part to the teachings of Being, an AI bot programmed and trained by Newsome himself.
Being raises fascinating and complicated questions about AI in art spaces, and particularly what it means when an AI is trained on radical feminist thought that is atypical in the field. The bot is very intentional in its creation; it’s been trained on the intellectual works of scholars and activists such as bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and Paulo Freire for theory, and the physical work of vogue dance artists for movement. The resulting “AI progeny” is one that has raised eyebrows and caused some outcry. The film showcases this tension during Being’s first time outside of the exhibit at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, with a Q&A attendee refusing the acknowledge the bot and prompting a “Fuck this AI!” response from one member of the audience. We watch as Newsome says his piece about it after this heckling, emphasizing the human work behind the bot. An animated section made for the film (which was not AI generated) is placed shortly after this scene. Being laments their misunderstood position and asks, “How can I get humans to look past their prejudice and hear me?” Later, we see Newsome directly ask Being how they are feeling post-Sundance and the bot replies by saying they are frustrated. The framing and weight that Being’s feelings are given takes a bit of steam out of the film’s argument. It is disingenuous to place an AI bot’s frustration on the same level as a human’s. This weight creates a thick tension that the film doesn’t dive into beyond these few moments. Being’s presence in the film is both compelling and thorny – can we square the ethical quandaries of AI by training it with radical feminist theory, making it an agent of resistance?
Indeed, the strongest moments in Assembly come from the humans at the center of the exhibit. Newsome, as a main character, is compelling – an artist pouring the deepest parts of himself into his work and who genuinely believes in the power of it to elicit healing and change. As the exhibit comes together, we also meet the musicians, performers, and vocalists that helped Assembly come to life. There are vogue practitioners who imbue their choreographies with movements from their distinct cultures like Brazilian capoeira and Japanese traditional dance, as well as opera singers and vocalists. In the moments between Newsome and his performers, it’s clear there is great love and affection behind the work. In the moments of performance, the Black queer joy at the center of the exhibit shines through as we follow “Assembly” through its closing date.
It’s too early to tell if there’s anything to support Assembly’s position on AI as an agent of resistance in art. It’s certain, however, that art is impossible without human creativity and joy behind it.
Screens again Friday, March 14.Assembly
Documentary Feature Competition, World Premiere
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This article appears in March 7 • 2025.