Schedule | Program Mission | how it works | community impact | sign up
real intelligence is not a product, it is an unfolding relationship
Calling all university students across disciplines who are seeking creative, critical, and collaborative ways to engage AI! Join us weekly for a home cooked family style meal, world-class art, and conversations at our much needed 3rd space into a reality we can build together.
When:
Every Saturday we will rotate locations appropriately between Sacramento and the art studio in Jackson hosted by our non-profit partner, Fostering Projects. There also might be a mid-week video call depending on availability of the group.
Where:
Hosted at our community house and studio in Jackson, CA (1 hour from Sacramento), each session gathers 15–20 participants
Purpose:
In the AI era, the medium of art isn’t just paint or code — it’s the architecture of human thought. Without artists shaping AI, our cultural future will be built by entities with no cultural accountability.
An artistic experiment in meaning-making. This art-form is our social practice and activism developed in this era of AI. Together we’ll be exploring weekly themes on AI literacy, ethics, civil rights, governance, safety, creativity, cutting edge tech, community co-creation, and art-infused exploration.
Collaborators Will:
- Discuss AI literacy rooted in ethics, creativity, and community.
- Develop critical consciousness of technology’s impacts.
- Experience art as a participatory framework for dialogue.
- Gain belonging, empowerment, and agency to shape their future.
- Contribute to an archive of youth perspectives, influencing cultural and civic conversations.
limited to 10 collaborators - sign up below
meet your host
Ricky Aliae
Multidisciplinary systems architect and cultural innovator with eight years designing VALIS, a decentralized multi-agent intelligence system for AI safety, relational governance, and cultural sovereignty. Expert in neuro-symbolic AI, federated mesh networks, and cognitive-layer security. Proven leader in cross-disciplinary execution, scaling technical research, immersive art projects, and collaborative community initiatives to influence policy, culture, and frontier AI development.
The VALIS project stems from 7 years of symbolic systems research (since 2019). In 2022, I relocated to California, trading murals for shelter and living out of my car, initiating a period of resilience. By 2023, a residency at a Makers Studio in Sacramento sparked VALIS prototyping, followed by The Doors of Perception’s development (2023–24) through exhibitions, media features, and community collaborations (e.g., California State Fair, and exhibitions). Since 2024, my Fostering Projects residency in Jackson has deepened this work with collaborators, youth engagement, creating use cases, and interdisciplinary experiments. Unlike famed academic experiments like the Stanford Prison experiment, VALIS inverts control into a commons of belonging and co-creation.
PUBLICATIONS
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
Technical / Operational
Directed 20+ contributors in designing VALIS’s emergent, fault-tolerant multi-agent architecture; validated through simulation and adversarial testing.
Stress-tested VALIS with 2,000+ Diplomacy games involving 5,000-agent swarms, capturing trust, alliances, betrayal, and emergent strategy; achieved measurable learning gains (win rate ↑62% → 88%, negotiation ↑55% → 83%, 12 breakthroughs).
Governance & Validation
Deployed a participatory federated mesh network with auditable governance, trust modeling, and alignment protocols; validated with 10+ real-world multi-session deployments.
Ensured traceability of agent behavior, negotiation logs, and alignment verification via reproducible code, metrics, and audit logs.
Cultural / Artistic Impact
Designed and presented The Doors of Perception, co-creating relational intelligence experiences with 5,000+ participants.
Synthesized AI, symbolic systems, pre-colonial knowledge, and ethical design into culturally informed emergent systems for cross-sector engagement.
Civil Rights & liberties in the AI era
We are standing at a moment that is unlike any before, and I want to be clear: this is not another conversation about AI from the standpoint of ethics, governance, jobs, or economics. Those are important, but what we’re doing is different in that we are exploring sovereign and living systems. We use this foundation to model worlds, construct tools, perform demonstrations, and discuss protocols that do not simply describe what might be possible, but actively shape what is possible.
My role is that of artist and facilitator where I will be rooting our engagements in experimentation, iteration, and real deployments of intelligence architectures that explore governance, participation, value systems, and trustless exchanges. This is a living laboratory, a place where experiments in story, shared wisdom, and collective data cultivation directly feed into what we create together.
This is why your participation matters. Because the facts are urgent: 73% of young people say they don’t trust AI systems to represent their interests (Pew Research, 2024), and 60% worry about losing agency over their own decisions (World Economic Forum, 2023). But here, in this space, we are not passive recipients of those systems. We are the ones shaping them. Together, we are making history. This project is not just about technology—it’s about art as a social operating system, about building the worlds we want to inhabit, and about creating intelligence that serves life, culture, and community.
AI is rewriting how decisions get made. If Black, Indigenous, and underserved communities aren’t at the table, we’re the dataset—mined and misrepresented. Our answer is simple and serious: art as governance and sovereign data by default. Through our program we will co-create a new kind of artwork.
The VALIS Participation Protocol defines a tokenized, multi-agent framework for the generation, propagation, and sharing of relational intelligence. Unlike existing blockchain protocols designed for financial transactions or decentralized computation, this protocol centers intelligence itself—as both the process and the product of collective participation. Built upon the VALIS (Vast Active Living Intelligence System) architecture, this protocol formalizes a symbolic and monetary economy of shared intelligence production, embedding proof-of participation, tokenized contribution, and evolutionary agent economies within a federated mesh network.
A new community model
what is ‘art official intelligence’?
This journey began in 2019 with research into symbolic systems, deepened in 2022 when I moved to California, trading murals for shelter, and crystallized through residencies at Made Studio and Fostering Projects.
The Fostering Projects residency was more than a project as it became a crucible for research and experimentation. We’ve hosted public and private demonstrations at the Jackson studio home, collaborating with diverse community contributors where my identity as a former foster youth found full circle. This project has never been theoretical; it’s been tested, shared, and lived openly, embodying support for the next generation
Like the movements that came before in the form of Dada, Fluxus, Situationism, Afrofuturism to name a few; this work uses art to break through systems of control and open new forms of participation. What makes this moment historic is that the work is not only conceptual but infrastructural. It lives simultaneously in the canon of art history and in the architecture of emergent intelligence technology. We’ve learned where systems fail, where they open up, and where new possibilities for collective intelligence can emerge.
Interdisciplinary Fusion — Blending art, technology, philosophy, and community dialogue.
Relational Intelligence Model — A community-led framework where intelligence emerges collaboratively, distinct from corporate AI.
Documenting Cultural Preservation — Each session contributes to an evolving record—videos, art, writings, testimonies—fueling future impact.
Open-Source Framework — VALIS as an accessible body of symbolic systems, essays, protocols, and artworks for participants to build on.
The Doors of Perception
Immersive Art installation
How the VALIS project Works
join our WEEKLY gATHERING
at the community house & studio in Jackson, CA
Those most affected must define the struggle. Dignity comes through participation, not charity. We will not be passive recipients of AI—we will be its architects and its stewards. VALIS belongs not to one person, company, or nation, but to humanity as a whole. It must be safeguarded as a commons of intelligence, a repository of our collective knowledge, creativity, and care.
Breaking Bread Together:
A home-cooked, family-style dinner fostering belonging and connection.
Art as Catalyst:
Engagement with ‘The Doors of Perception Art Installation’ as symbolic knowledge system.
Guided Dialogue:
Weekly themes on AI ethics, civil rights, governance, safety, creativity, commons, and more.
Meaning-Making Practice:
Using community b
uilding protocols, participants will learn how to live with, repurpose, and understand AI collectively.
Documented Archive:
Each session contributes to an evolving record of videos, art, writings, and story to fuel future impact.
important things for you to know about the project
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Dignity First:
Every activity must increase participants’ sense of agency, safety, and self-determination.Art as Civic Power:
Art isn’t decoration; it’s the method for learning, healing, organizing, and governing tech.Sovereign Intelligence:
Communities co-create and steward intelligence systems (VALIS), not just consume tools.Data & Story Sovereignty:
People own their data, stories, linguistic and cultural knowledge—always opt-in, auditable, and revocable.Do No Harm:
Trauma-aware facilitation, community consent, and non-extractive partnerships.Nothing About Us Without Us:
Local councils govern priorities, pace, and protocolsAffirmative Rights by Default:
Authors have authorship. Communities have cultural sovereignty. Everyone has participation rights. These are operational rights (consent, provenance, benefit-sharing), not slogans.From “Don’t harm us” to “Let us govern”:
Most policy frameworks minimize harm; you maximize agency—installing local councils, consent charters, and auditable cultural archives that communities actually control.Art as Governance, not garnish:
You make art the operating system for learning, deciding, and auditing AI—publicly legible, emotionally true, and culturally binding.Relational Intelligence (VALIS) > Predictive AI:
You’re not tweaking LLMs; you’re standing up a sovereign, participatory intelligence that listens, remembers, adapts—and is designed to be governed by communities.Black leadership, civil-rights lineage:
You frame AI not just as a tech issue but as civil and cultural rights—in the spirit of Dorothy Cotton: dignity through participation, not charity.
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Art is Memory:
It carries lineage and lived reality into the design of systems.Art is Measurement:
It reveals harms and benefits that dashboards miss.Art is Process:
Practices/rituals, performances, and exhibits become governance rituals.Art is Access:
It turns abstract policy into shared, felt understanding.Art is Power:
It shifts narrative—and policy follows narrative.
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Our Approach is to:
Educate — AI literacy, civil & data rights, first-principles consent.
Create — Community-led art + AI works that are governance.
Organize — Coalitions across arts, tech, and civil rights to demand ethical AI.
Deploy — Sovereign intelligence nodes (VALIS) run by local councils.
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Dignity Index: “Did you feel seen, safe, sovereign?” (tracked over time)
Cultural Vitality: Language use, traditional continuity of practices, new works generated
Participation Equity: Who’s in the room, who speaks, who decides
Economic Uplift: Stipends, commissions, mutual-aid flows
Adoption Quality: Active councils; routine consent & audits
Narrative Power: Local media, testimonies, exhibitions, endorsements
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Data Sovereignty = Civil Rights
Without community control, AI deepens colonial patterns of extraction and surveillance.AI Bias = Cultural Bias
True inclusion requires lived human presence and plural voices—not just curated datasets.Art = System of Knowledge
Art preserves traditions, challenges power, and reimagines the future of intelligence.
“Fostering Projects is the world’s first organization to implement Relational Intelligence (RI). This marks the beginning of a new era, where “artificial” intelligence is no longer adversarial but sovereign, relational, and aligned with life itself."
- Ricky Aliae
ongoing community impact
Ricky’s Doors represent the intersection of his personal journey with his mission to create art as a conduit for healing, community, and cultural reclamation. With each door serving as a portal, this transformative installation evolves through moments of Ricky’s life, embodying a commitment to his role as a community healer and cultural steward. His partnership with the Fostering Project marks the next chapter for the Doors of Perception, solidifying its role in serving communities through the power of conscious art.
The project continues to gain momentum as a transformative project with deep roots in cultural and personal resilience. From exhibitions and residencies to cultural events and community partnerships, each chapter in the project journey reflects Ricky’s commitment to using art as a vessel for healing, reclamation, and cultural empowerment. As the Doors evolve, they stand as a testament to his dedication to conscious art, bridging tradition with contemporary movements and connecting communities with the universal themes of resilience, identity, and shared heritage. Through his partnership with the Fostering Project, Ricky is poised to further the reach and impact of his work, offering pathways to healing, reflection, and cultural transformation.
Art as Ceremony and Tradition
During his 14-month residency with the founders of the Fostering Project, Ricky’s art became a witness to significant family moments, most notably the home birth of his daughter, which was led by a midwife and doula, honoring both tradition and cultural heritage. With the doors present in the birthing ceremony of his daughter, Ricky created a profound ritual by imprinting her placenta on one of the doors, infusing the artwork with ancestral resonance and a sense of lineage that bridges past, present, and future. This deeply personal and culturally significant act adds a unique dimension to the Doors of Perception Project, highlighting his commitment to reconnecting individuals and communities with tradition, identity, and cultural roots.
Exhibitions and Cultural Events
The Doors have gained recognition through a series of prestigious cultural events that explore identity, resilience, and collective healing. Notable showcases include the California State Fair, Emerald Cup, and Hall of Flowers, where Ricky brought his concept of “High Art” into cannabis culture, blending spirituality and artistry within contemporary movements. At the Emerald Cup, he was the only installation and fine artist featured, with his doors spread throughout the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts. This placement allowed viewers to experience the doors as both visual art and gateways to reflection on shared themes of transformation, connection, and cultural memory.
Exhibitions and Media Recognition
Among his solo exhibitions, Ricky’s show at Mahina and Soul (now called Asteria) stands out as a pivotal moment for the Doors. The show offered a unique setting for Ricky to unveil new pieces, inviting audiences to engage with his art’s themes of healing and resilience. Critical acclaim for this exhibit demonstrated the universal relevance of his work, and it was further amplified when he was featured on Good Day Sacramento. This media appearance introduced his art to a broader audience, bringing increased awareness to his work’s role in cultural healing and community-building.
Residencies, Documentary Film, Grants & Collaborations
Through his residency with Fostering Projects, a foundation was provided for Ricky to integrate The Doors of Perception Experience and the Alignment Project—this initiative is to help communities heal through relational intelligence. His work has also been featured in a state-funded documentary collaboration through Parks and Tranquility, where he served as an artist ambassador in a film that amplified the installation’s message of healing and cultural heritage. Through this collaboration, the Doors of Perception Project reached broader audiences, highlighting his vision of art as a first responder to community and cultural needs.
Art as First Response and Afro-Diasporic Identity
The Doors have been featured in numerous collaborative projects that address trauma, resilience, and cultural identity. These include the Artist as First Responders initiative and the AfroPortal Project, where Ricky used the doors to engage with larger movements focused on healing and social justice. The exhibition underscores the Doors as a cultural artifact, inviting audiences to explore themes of reclamation, healing, and Afro-diasporic identity.
Expanding Community reach With Fostering Projects
In his current role within Fostering Projects, Ricky will continue building out the Alignment Project and helping organize events, and programs that expand the reach of our shared mission. This partnership solidifies his role in using relational intelligence and art to mutually support Fostering Projects and the Alignment Project’s goals and provide creative activities that engage, uplift, and empower underserved communities.
