Still fromThe Substitute installation, 2019; Designed by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (British and South African, b. 1982); Animation by The Mill with behavior based on research by DeepMind; Paired video installation (projector and screen); 6 minutes 18 seconds; Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund, 2020-10-1.
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s The Substitute is an immersive video and sound installation that digitally resurrects the extinct male Northern white rhino using artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art visual effects.
On March 19, 2018, the last male northern white rhino, Sudan, died, bringing his subspecies to the brink of extinction. Scientists extracted Sudan’s DNA, stored it in lab freezers, and proposed experimental de-extinction projects using his genetic material. In this context, Ginsberg created The Substitute, digitally resurrecting a northern white rhino. This artificial rhino is divorced from the natural habitat where its living counterparts once roamed. Confined to a virtual white room, it is unaware of its surroundings. It appears highly pixelated and distorted. Using data generated by AI, the rhino learns to navigate the room. Its form is generated using CGI, and its sounds are adapted from rare archival footage of the last herd of northern white rhinos.
As the rhino gains intelligence, it becomes increasingly lifelike. Through the work, Ginsberg questions, “Can we conscionably resurrect a species when we couldn’t keep it alive in the first place?”
This work is part of Cooper Hewitt’s Digital collection. It was originally commissioned by Cooper Hewitt for the 2019 exhibition Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial.
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s work is multidisciplinary and raises questions concerning climate change, species extinction, biotechnology, and other challenges to our future by fusing art, design, synthetic biology, writing, and curation.
She exhibits internationally and her projects, Resurrecting the Sublime and The Substitute, were exhibited in Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial in 2019. Ginsberg’s most recent commissions include a large-scale Pollinator Pathmaker video installation for Google’s Gradient Canopy building in Mountain View; an eight-meter-wide tapestry Perceptual Field for London’s Design Museum’s international touring exhibition, More Than Human; and her recently announced public art sculptures for Oxford North’s Canalside Park opening in summer 2026.
The Substitute is part of Cooper Hewitt’s Digital collection. Since 2011 Cooper Hewitt has actively collected born-digital design—work that originates and exists digitally. The collection includes a broad range of digital design from live interactive websites and digital typefaces to applications, emojis, and time-based media.
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The Substitute Visual Description:
An animated video on an approximately six-minute loop. A small plain room with white floors and three visible walls begins empty. Various shades of brown and grey square pixels appear in a bunch near the floor in a corner of the room. They flicker and move together. As time progresses, the bunch develops into a single form, becoming progressively clearer and more recognizable. The pixels tighten into smoother surfaces, then into a fully rendered, high‑resolution rhinoceros. The animal moves and walks around the enclosed room. Its tail flicks and its head nods with vocal expressions. Toward the end of the loop, the rhinoceros looks at the audience before disappearing, and the loop restarts with the empty room.
Featured Image: Still fromThe Substitute installation, 2019; Designed by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (British and South African, b. 1982); Animation by The Mill with behavior based on research by DeepMind; Paired video installation (projector and screen); 6 minutes 18 seconds; Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund, 2020-10-1.
