Mimi Ọnụọha and Simone Browne in Conversation

Ọnụọha’s work combines artificial intelligence (AI), data mining, and documentary to expose contradictions in technological progress. Technology relies on various logical systems that are adapted to different uses or applications. Throughout the talk, the speakers will explore how the contemporary logic of quantification, which focuses on grouping things together based on similarities or certain properties, permeates all aspects of life. They will also touch on the risk, power, and potential of being unrepresented in these systems and cover topics such as missing data, Black geographies (an area of study exploring the connections between racial identities and place), and more.

Before the talk, Ọnụọha will debut an excerpt of her brand-new film, Ground Truths. Prompted by the discovery of a mass grave in her hometown, Sugarland, Texas, the docufiction film is a dramatized retelling of Ọnụọha’s creation of a statistically sound but subjectively loaded machine-learning model to predict the locations of other mass graves in her home state.

Don’t miss the Wex's Fall 2025 Exhibitions Opening Celebration on August 22, where you can experience Ọnụọha’s work for yourself. Her video Us, Aggregated 3.0 (2019), on view in The Box through January 11, investigates how digital tools shape our understanding of identity, power, and community through her experience with image search.

What Is Missing Is Still There is a survey of Ọnụọha's work taking place across Columbus.