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Research and Critical Reflection 1

In my work I am exploring how people perceive themselves and their environment in a new way as a result of increasing digitization and the concept of artificial intelligence.

I approached this research question from two different directions. On the one hand from the perspective of reflecting on artificial intelligence and its potential with regard to the dream of an artificially recruited consciousness and on the other hand from the perspective of the human individual being exposed to the digital space.

In the following essay I will discuss to what extent ones self-perception changes through immersion in the digital world and and how contemporary artists and specialists in the field position themselves in relation to the limits of AI. I will then then critically reflect on the methods I used in my painting and my processes while relating my approaches and decisions to other artists works.

A critical look at the potential
of AI research

Doesn't it seem ethically presumptuous to believe that humans could create a new form of intelligent existence out of non-living material and yet this dream dates back as far as the Golem in the 12th century? Scientists, philosophers and experts in the field of artificial intelligence take very different positions on the potential and limits of AI. They begin to question the subjective interpretations of the concept of intelligence and the search for the one meaning of human existence.

For Al-Khalili, British professor of theoretical nuclear physics, the human tendency to want to put themselves at the top of the pyramid is a reason for the expectation that machines can be endowed with human-like intelligence in the future. He feels that the form of intelligence that is being researched in AI describes only a fraction of our real intelligence and that AI should by no means be referred to as human-like and conscious. For him, intelligence cannot be equated with consciousness, and human sensitivity in particular seems too central to him for it be technically replicated. For him, creations in the digital world and the training and programming of apparently ever more intelligent robots or algorithms has so far been more of a simulation of reality and „simulation is not the same thing as instantiating as giving rise to that system"(Al-Khalili, 2021).

According to Al-Khalili, a main reason for the impossibility of transferring human consciousness to the algorithm or the robot is the strict separation of hardware and software in the computer, while in humans, on the other hand, no such clear dividing line can be drawn between brain and body. (Al-Khalili, 2021) Singer Grimes feels differently about those limits of technology, from her perspective technology has always advanced with great speed and just because sentient AI seems unrealistic today, it might be possible in the future. For her there is no actual limit on technology (Grimes, 2020). Approaching the thought of sentient AI from a different direction, singer Sevdaliza provocatively doubts her own existence in a performance-obsessed society in which she feels deprived of her free development. She hopes AI could pave the way to a new form of existence for the human. (Sevdaliza, 2021)

Intelligence and morals

If consciousness might be unattainable then we must narrow down what intelligence really means. For the German philosopher Mitscherlich, intelligence cannot only be understood as understanding and judging concrete life situations, because such conclusions only define views of the concrete hour. It can only be defined how we want to live together today and now and this judgment could be outdated very soon. On top of that every newly gained insight in this area of research might be artificial, because the technologies are permeated by the human image of the respective client or researcher and their personal definition of the so-called „good life“. (Mitscherlich, 2022) A universal concept of intelligence can therefore hardly be defined for all of humanity because not every culture is included in its definition. However, many services that use or plan to use AI are active globally and their concept of morality is being imposed on their users.

For me, these considerations are all based on the fact that we must be aware of what it means to be human if we want to determine accurate principles that define our actions. Only then can general trading conditions be defined from which artificial intelligence can learn and structure the digital space. Of course, it can be said here that we have all been training the AI in the collective of digital exchange for a long time. The interaction patterns and data we leave behind grows exponentially every year. But are they a representative mirror of our values and our nature? Is the behavior of people who have access to the Internet representative? In the following I would like to go into more detail about how our sense of self has been changed and altered by the connection to the digital world.

Identity in the digital space

"The question of how we have to deal with the technical progress of digitization does not answer the question of who we are“ (Grunwald, 2022).

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Armin Grunwald, German physicist, philosopher and technology assessor understands the relationship between humans and technology as a reciprocal relationship. For him, a peculiar dynamic of its own emerges here, in which the state of our knowledge changes the way in which we perceive the world. He interprets our view of the world and our role in it, as a mirror of the technologies that surround us and as an attempt to see what they may mean for us in the future. The technological development and the image of man intertwine and form a unit. He puts up for debate whether we can understand ourselves today as “homo digitalis” and whether our own self-image is now increasingly taking on the features of a processing machine. (Grunwald, 2022)

In the disruptive power of AI and digital technologies there is also the danger of digitizing or automating processes too carelessly, which at their core, however, live on interpersonal interaction. (Mitscherlich, 2022) Haddadin, Chair of Robotics and System Intelligence at the Technical University of Munich refers to this and defines our contemporary age as a “cold age” in which the digital and physical worlds merge to the dawn of a meta-universe in which humans are neglected as beings of constant physical movement and only the humans mind is given attention. (Haddadin, 2022)

Multidisciplinary Artist Olafur Eliasson, whose works celebrate a fascination with the world that surrounds us, also believes that „we are getting disconnected and disembodied by all this digital presence“ (Eliasson, 2021). He questions where art finds its place in this development and if we are changing some core values in the way we interact digitally today. In his recent AR works he tries to redirect the human gaze to nature because otherwise he fears that we might be just stuck in a life in a 2-dimensional flat screen. (Eliasson, 2021)

Identity and interconnectivity

The merge of the digital and the physical world has caused a rethinking of the whole concept of identity. As these complex planes and truths come together, it becomes almost impossible to maintain a purely authentic identity. The ever-growing demand for more transparency online has led to the development of a new digital Taylorism, “which is permeating all areas of our lives with the unrelenting pressure to perform” (Cook et al., 2017). Measuring self-esteem on this scale of efficiency leads to us cleaning up contradictions and flaws in our own identity and no longer being able or willing to be open about them. It seems to him that we can only develop our identities if we believe that we really are, or can be, someone very different from whom we appear to be. People have accepted and created false identities online, they became the curators of their online identity, turned the boundaries of gender into fluid areas and multiplied their identity into different versions of the one, which can lead to a loss of clarity in defining identity. (Cook et al., 2017)

In contrast to Cook, Sadie Plant understands the digital space as the realm to finally be ones true self as "virtuality brings a fluidity to identities which once had to be fixed" (Plant, 1997, p.325). Genders can suddenly be bent and blurred and time-space coordinates are lost, meaning for new generations that they have the opportunity to "reprogram guilt, deny authority, confuse identity, and have no interest in the reform or redecoration of the ancient patriarchal code” (Plant, 1997, p.326). Identity is a process in motion rather than a fixed state of being. The individual finds himself in an “identity zone” which can always be reconfigured without having to be stuck in it. (Jeffery, 2013) In this freedom of self-discovery, however, the digital self is only just beginning, as it also increases the number of identities we can project. (Cook et al., 2017)

Cook cites this movement of fluid identity as so widely accepted that Facebook has allowed its users to choose from 58 different gender options, ranging from androgynous to gender-specific and non-binary. In 2017 already more than two-thirds of Generation Z confirmed that gender is no longer as determinative of identity as it used to be. (Cook et al., 2017; Goldmann, 2014) However, this freedom also harbors the risk of confusion, since the stability of identity is weakened or even discarded from gender. (Asendorf, 2021) „The new flow of one's own identity thus eludes any logic, which is nevertheless necessary to identify with oneself“ (Irigara, 1985).

Nature and the metaverse

In this gravitation towards the digital, the more optimized and the simulated, it is obvious that with our changed self-perception, the way we perceive our surroundings also changes. Are we creating a second world in the Metaverse, or are we more connected to nature than ever?

For Plant, it is completely irrelevant to differentiate between the virtual and the actual reality, because for her, the digital space is an anarchic system whose functionality the users adapt and can transfer to real life in parallel. The digital offers a „new tactile environment“ (Plant, 1997, p. 325) that is uncontrollable and capable of anything. (Plant, 1997)

Famous multimedia artist Refik Anadol, whose works are a source of inspiration visually for my work, has just announced a multi-sensory, metaverse project called DATALAND in partnership with Epson, L-Acoustics and LG Displays for this year. He promotes this project with the words "DATALAND marks a turning point in data and AI aesthetics at the convergence of cutting-edge neuroscientific experiments and virtually enhanced physical reality" (Campos, 2022). What particularly stands out here for me is the expression of virtually enhanced physical reality. It conveys reality as something that should be enhanced in order to be celebrated. He describes this new experience as re-defining the relationship between perception, presence, and sensation. „The immersive aesthetics will create unprecedented spaces and invent cutting-edge poetic algorithms for new meditative experiences in metaverse in which the sculptures adapt to the humans motion“ (Anadol via Twitter, 2022; RAS, 2022).

For me there is a strong tension between the created and the natural world and I think that people should develop for their environment rather then purely for themselves. The idea of the metaverse seems to me like creating a retreat that can be colourful, predictable, safe and infinitely monetizable. I would like to address this withdrawal behavior and make people more sensitive to life outside of the screen, which is so much more attractive than any simulation.

Sadie Plant relates the quest for a disembodied world with a patriarchal desire to "tame nature and so escape its constraints" and the "dream of escaping from the meat" (Plant, 1997, p.33).

Virtual Reality artist Claudia Hart believes that technology has replaced nature in a frightening and plasticized manner and She Zheng subverts the natural landscape in a installation of screens mimicking a tree that exchanges energy and matter as the new sources of life that is being observed by a computer vision. (Gazell, 2021)

How can I express these complex developments visually? Which stylistic elements and which medium can I choose and how does my idea convey itself to the viewer.

Reflections on my artworks
Fractals
The Rhizome

The first work I would like to reflect on is the piece called „Fractals“. I was particularly inspired by the concept of the rhizome proposed by Deleuze and Guattari in 1995. They created new tools with which they hoped to reorder our selves and our world" (O´Sullivan, 2002, p. 84).

For Deleuze the rhizome is also a map with which people can „reorganize or resingularise themselves in a creative and affirmative manner while always opening up to an outside" (O´Sullivan, 2002, p.84). It is anti-hierarchical and a-centered and fosters transversal and alogical connections between events. The Rhizome symbolizes how thoughts, ideas and movements link together and is a non fixable and never completely graspable structure which has no clear beginning or end. (West, 2018, episode 127; Jeffery, 2013)
In view of the knowledge gained in the previous section that the given order of the self is broken up in the digital space, I wanted to deal with the rhizome that can symbolize an order of this chaos. For me, this concept is linked to the idea that one's own identity is open to change and can be freely shaped.
The human exists as a fragment of the One when he begins to enter a decentralized world. The world becomes a conditioned reality and an "energy vortex". (O´Sullivan, 2002, p.88; West, 2018, episode 127; Jeffery, 2013)
For me, the color gradient from red to yellow symbolizes the artificial energy from which the form is built, which itself has no permanent connections between its individual elements. The forms are in a state of constant fragmentation. It forms in a colorless environment that acts like a vacuum. Fractal comes from Latin frangere' (breaking into pieces), which designates certain natural or artificial structures or geometric patterns.

Rhizome
Mehretu
Anadol

I worked more experimentally here, cut shapes out of masking tape and chose the placement freely to let the composition develop like a self-growing organism. I emphasized a compression of the shapes towards the middle and an indication of depth by making the shapes smaller towards the middle. In my head I had the idea of ​​sticking reflective foil on the canvas to reflect the incoming light. During the implementation, however, the reflective mirror image bothered me. In retrospectiveI I think my forms have become a bit too organic and not entangled enough and the connection between the work and the digital space is not revealed in the flatness of the technique when looking at it. The idea could be developed further by giving the work more depth. I think I can learn a lot for my composition from Julie Mehretu's use of sharpness and blurriness. Her work radiates complexity, multiple movement and is multifaceted. Refik Anadol experiment with the generated mesh in motion gives me a better understanding of how to make the nodes of the rhizome clearer.

Rebuilding nature

The Mesh

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To further explore the relationship between humans and modern technology, I have begun to develop the idea of ​​an organic rhizome proposed by Deleuze into a mesh structure that represents the connections in a different and artificial way. The work "Rebuilding nature" was created parallel to "Fractals" and took a very long time, in retrospect too long, which is why I tried out a much faster technique with Fractals.

For me, the central topic was the AI ​​forming an artificial human who is constructed from a grid. The flowing blue symbolizes a cold nature from which the grid is formed. I wanted to create a process of mutual becoming between natural and artificial. The idea was to create a zone in which it is not clear which side prevails. Does nature create the machine or is the humanoid machine consuming nature?

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Iris van Herpen
Anadol

I was very inspired by the designs by Iris van Herpen. She creates a skilful connection and coexistence of the digital and the organic in her designs. Using fractal folds, she takes up the idea of ​​a post-human world in which humankind enters into a symbiosis with the artificial. The human becomes a hybrid character. I also find the flowing element from which something new can always be created in Anadols work, but I guess it lives from its movement. I think I did a good job on some of the details in this composition, but I didn't overwork the accident of the flowing effect enough. Because I wanted to depict a symbiosis and therefore only painted in blue, the possibility of distinguishing between technical elements and flowing elements was lost. I painted with a tiny brush and very close to the canvas, which is why I noticed too late that from a distance everything seems to blur and only the blue is perceived. In the future I will pay more attention to the contrast and a composition of more visible divisions in the macro.

Where-nothing-ever-happens.jpg
Where nothing ever happens

Fluidity and Glitch

With this work I have found a direction in which I would like to develop my future works. "Where nothing ever happens" is based on the idea that people seem to be disappearing more and more into the digital world. The human runs the risk of losing his physicality (see Eliasson) and sinks into an artificial construct that seems to promise an optimized world.
The nature around him is artificial and envelops him in its strange consistency.
The environment seems to have become liquid and the boundaries of the forms dissolve into each other. The only rigid object left is the crystalline VR headset. The work symbolizes my discomfort with the metaverse without appearing visually uncomfortable. For me it is a successful deception. The title "Where nothing ever happens" describes the lack of truthfulness of the events in an artificial world.

Helen Chadwick

For this work I changed my approach and my stylistic elements and I think this way is more promising. Perhaps it can be combined with the older approaches. I created my own templates and animated them using 3D software. This allowed me to study the reflections on an artificial surface much more closely and simulate them in my painting. I struggled a bit with the human figure because I really don't want to give it an identity and the composition needed a recognizable human face. I'm still thinking about how I can indicate the dissolution of the human body in the future without having to give it a specific skin color or gender. Also, I want to be more graphic and suggest less organic elements. I would like to take a closer look at the work of Helen Chadwick, who has managed to depict the humans connection to nature without having to depict the body.

At the moment I am developing the idea of ​​the encounter between (or the clash of) nature and the digital and am experimenting with short animations and digital collages. With this new approach, I want to try out different compositions before I implement them in my painting. I am interested in the look of the overlay and the glitch. What helps me a lot in this process is that I can change color, reflection and composition very quickly and intuitively. This allows me to vaguely visualize my vision for the later image in advance.

In this animation I have combined the approaches from "Fractals" and "Where nothing ever happens". The linked and splintering texture, which stands for the artificially generated and always incomplete, pulsates like an accelerated heartbeat over a distorted image of nature, which simulates a pull into the center.

Becoming
Fka Twigs
Sarah Sze
Shi Zheng
Sevdaliza
Grit Richter

During my research, I came across a sculpture by Sarah Sze, which also deals with the combination of a fragmented form and nature. She lets them reflect the sky, which I find very poetic, and organizes the individual elements into a suggested common form. I find this assignment to a foreseeable basic state before the fragmentation very exciting. In my composition I would like to learn to give the chaos a coherent form.

The effect of the glitch expresses an error in the system and suggests an uncontrollable process in the algorithm. I would like to dig deeper into this effect of the error and the indicator of the presence of something artificially generated. Sevdaliza and Fka Twigs play with the glitch and the fluid distortion with which they express a change in their identity in the context of the digital. In addition to these stylistic effects, I also want to leave more room for calm surfaces in my compositions in order to create contrast and fixate the viewer's eye better. Grit Richter creates this digital and at the same time spatial color and form language by greatly reducing her pictorial elements and at the same time preserving a fragile inner turmoil. Shi Zheng arranges the screens in his work in a tree-like technical structure and for me it is a relevant example of an exciting and simultaneous staging of several screens around space, which makes me think further about the presentation of animations.

 

I think my experiments in this unit have clearly shown me what works well and what doesn't. It's almost ironic that I've now expanded my process of analogue painting with the digital and I'm excited to explore where this is taking me.

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