MSU Museum Reopens January 14, Featuring Blurred Realities Exhibition
As artificial intelligence, social media, and rapidly evolving technologies reshape how we see and understand the world, distinguishing fact from fiction has never been more urgent. Blurred Realities, the featured exhibition for the MSU Museum’s reopening, invites visitors to explore the complexities of misinformation, disinformation, bias, and digital manipulation, forces that increasingly influence our perceptions, decision-making, and democratic systems.
Opening January 14, 2026, Blurred Realities brings together artists, researchers, technologists, and students whose work interrogates how truth is constructed, contested, and transformed in the digital age. The exhibition arrives as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its democracy, a moment that heightens collective questions about trust, civic participation, and the fragile nature of shared reality.
“At the MSU Museum, we are committed to creating interdisciplinary spaces that help our community navigate the most pressing challenges of our time,” said MSU Museum Director Devon Akmon. “Blurred Realities confronts the conditions shaping how truth circulates today, from AI-generated media to the unseen systems that fuel polarization, and asks us to reflect on how we understand the world and each other.”
Developed by the Museum’s CoLab Studio, an incubator for experimentation at the intersection of art, science, culture, and technology, Blurred Realities unfolds across themes including the power of bias, the nature of authenticity, digital persuasion, and the role of fiction in shaping memory and imagination. The eight exhibits featured in the exhibition were selected from 241 proposals submitted through an open call spanning 34 countries, reflecting a broad spectrum of ideas, media, and critical perspectives.
“This exhibition is timely, provocative, and deeply interdisciplinary,” said Caroline White, CoLab Education and Learning Manager and co-curator. “The artists and researchers featured in Blurred Realities challenge us to think critically about the digital tools we rely on every day. Their work exposes how technology can distort our perceptions, and also how it can help us imagine new possibilities for understanding, creativity, and connection.”
The exhibition features a range of works that explore the increasingly porous boundaries between what is real and what is constructed. Visitors encounter AI-generated phantom islands inspired by historical map errors; uncanny artificial ecosystems that echo our attempts to recreate nature; an installation that probes emotional intimacy with AI companions; and projects that reveal how political messaging is micro-targeted and manipulated at scale. Other works examine the rhetorical tactics of online influencers, speculate on futures rooted in diasporic memory, and present AI-generated objects that spark nostalgia for memories that never truly existed. Together, these pieces illuminate the ways technology fragments, amplifies, and transforms the narratives we rely on to make sense of our world.
Throughout its run, Blurred Realities will activate the MSU Museum with programs that foster public dialogue around media literacy, AI ethics, digital culture, and the civic implications of an information landscape in flux. Visitors will encounter hands-on experiences, moderated conversations, and student-led engagements designed to deepen understanding and spark community reflection.
The public is invited to celebrate the opening of Blurred Realities on January 14, 2026 at 3:30PM during a special reception marking the grand reopening of the MSU Museum following its 18-month renovation.
Blurred Realities is made possible through the generous support of the Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU).
Learn more and watch videos about the exhibits on our Bloomberg Connects app!