The Dept. of Species Services (DSS)

Exploring how human labor might be reassigned by artificial intelligence to sustain ecological systems through a commons-based model of care.

The Department of Species Services (DSS) explores a near-future in which artificial intelligence no longer serves solely as a tool for human productivity, but operates as an institutional system that reorganizes labor across species and environments. By reframing work as ecological participation rather than economic output, DSS responds to growing anxieties around automation by proposing an alternative: a world in which humans are reassigned roles within planetary systems. Through interactive assessments, job assignments, and embodied performances, the project transforms speculative futures into lived experiences, operating at the boundary between fiction and institutional plausibility.

(Client)

Solo Exhibition at Gray Area Art & Technology - Art +Tech

(Year)

2025- Now (On-going)

Details

The Department of Species Services (DSS) is a speculative design project that reimagines how human labor might be reorganized in response to ecological crisis.

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Set in a near future, DSS operates as an AI-managed ecological commons, monitoring environmental conditions and assigning humans to support failing systems across species. Here, labor is no longer defined by markets, but by the needs of the biosphere.

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This installation focuses on one such role: the Human Pollinator. Following a sudden decline in bee populations, humans are recruited to manually pollinate California poppies, temporarily replacing the work of native pollinators. Participants use a custom Pollination Glove to perform this task, transforming touch into ecological labor.

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Through this act, DSS reframes the human role, not as observer, but as a worker embedded within planetary systems.

Blurring the line between fiction and reality, the project asks: what are humans still needed for in an AI-coordinated world?

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Credits

CREDIT :

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Shihan Zhang Creative Director & Design Futurist

‍Mingyong Cheng Creative Technologist & New Media Artist, UC San Diego

‍Han Zhang Interactive Engineer & Computer Musician, UC San Diego

‍Ziwei Liu Visual Artist

‍Jiaye Leng AI Engineer & Human-AI Interaction Researcher, CityU of Hong Kong

‍Abigail Hinson Dancer & Choreographer

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ADVISOR:

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Neal Williams — Consulting Pollination Ecologist, University of California, Davis

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