This semester I want to try a different approach to the work I am producing by making it more relatable to the audience, and by also going back to what I love about making images. In the past I have insufficiently tried to jam concept-based images and artistic gestures together in a singular art piece. But I feel that now is a time for me to think about my research as divided between the conceptual research on one side and the material research on the other, with an interest in creating bridges between the two through conversations.
My process is most definitely based on the subjects I am exploring. I am an advocate for the form allowing the content to exist, but I want to leave more space for artistic gestures to occur while making less decision and intervention in the work. I want to be more of a facilitator of the work that records and captures conversations with the machine.
For the last few weeks I have been more and more interested in developing my knowledge around Artificial Intelligence, Computer generated images and generative image-based software. I have been taking a few coding classes and look forward to be producing work in that realm.
I have started this semester by asking questions related to the body to personal assistants powered by Artificial Intelligence such as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant. I am interested in this idea of asking Artificial Intelligence to provide answers about the body precisely because they don’t own a body themselves, but also because Humanity seems to be turning itself more and more to new technologies as systems that support and provide truth. I am interested in challenging this idea in the work. While questions around the notion of the “perfect body” have been repeatedly asked throughout History, I am not necessarily interested in the answer Artificial Intelligence would provide as they just recommend compiled information that has been fed to them. What seems interesting to me is the gesture of asking a question to the machine, but also the re-interpretation of data for a simple question that either does not have an answer or is much too complicated to be formulated by contemporary technology : “What is a perfect body?”
Maybe the question is more relevant than the answer itself and the act of asking such a question holds more meaning.