What Is It Like? is a group exhibition that explores the nature of subjective reality, inspired by Thomas Nagel’s seminal 1974 paper, What Is It Like to Be a Bat?. Curated by Helen Starr, the exhibition reflects her practice of investigating the brain as a machine that constructs tailored realities.

Featuring artworks by Anna Bunting-Branch, Choy Ka Fai, Damara Inglês, Katarzyna Krakowiak Balka, Lawrence Lek and Kira Xonorika, the exhibition celebrates how artists use AI tools and techniques to craft cultural meaning, bridging creativity, innovation and humanity into our rapidly evolving technological landscape.

The exhibition delves into language, memory, and the boundaries of consciousness, shedding light on why AI models currently remain incapable of true sentience, emotion, or self-awareness. Through artworks employing soundscapes, VR, game engines, and the metaverse, it invites viewers to navigate the layered complexities of perception, experience, and consciousness—mirroring with its interactive stage-crafting how AI technologies generate immersive yet illusory realities.

What Is It Like? is an exhibition in partnership with WRO Art Center, funded by the British Council as part of the UK/Poland Season 2025. The exhibition tours to WRO Art Center, Poland, from the18th September to the 31st of October 2025.

Read more about the exhibition here. Following the opening, the exhibition is free and open to public from Tuesday to Sunday, 1 - 6pm until 4th May 2025.