The Simulacro-centric World. Version 3.1. Touch
© Art Project by
Galina Bleikh & Elena Serebryakova
© Sound: Nikolay Serebryakov, 2019
One of the crucial challenges facing modern civilization is the question of where the scientific and technological progress is taking us. Revolutionary breakthroughs in information technology and biotechnology are forcing us to face problems that humanity has never dealt with before. This indeterminacy inevitably gives rise to a feeling of perplexity, a fear of “dehumanization” and of the impending catastrophe. Are human beings capable of understanding the world that they themselves have created?
Today, the world is undergoing a crisis of anthropocentrism. We are putting forth the bold hypothesis that the key figure of the future will not be the human being, but the simulacrum (Baudrillard’s term), and our culture will become simulacro-centric.
Artificial intelligence is constantly improving its ability to “hack” human beings, surpassing their skills and accomplishments in areas that used to be regarded as the exclusive preserve of humanity. It also possesses unique abilities of its own, which humanity lacks.
Our Science-art project “The Simulacro-centric World” creates a new kind of communication between the simulacrum – in our case, the 3D Miki character – and the human being. This form of communication reflects the changing nature of the world. We are creating the conditions for acquiring the experience of mutual understanding, mutual adjustment, with an alien object (or person) that is not identical or similar to you.
As the creators of Hybrid Neural Network Art – one of the fields within Science-art – we are dealing with the challenge of adapting to the dynamic changes taking place in the world.
A description of the "The Simulacro-centric World. Version 3.1. Touch" installation
Our project creates the preconditions for a dialogue with an AI, which lacks the concept of tactile contact because of its digital nature. The Miki Simulacrum grasps the meaning of tactile contact, thereby comprehending the broader concept of individuality.
Its AI:
– interprets the unique pattern of the lines of the hand as an individual code (ID) containing information about the human being;
– identifies the web of lines belonging to the hand of the person who has touched the scanner (the tablet), and categorizes it as a network concept.
In this category, the universal triangulated web (mesh) of the 3-dimensional surface is interpreted by the simulacrum as a personal ID, which corresponds to the person’s “individuality”.
© Galina Bleikh & Elena Serebryakova