A.I.pocalypse Now!
2-channel Video, Sound, 22min
Collaboration with Agata Cieslak

In this video work my collaborator and I both embodied and played an artificial Intellicence system. We scripted a dialogue between the two, one being a slightly naive, less refined version, the other being more philosophical and increasingly menacing. It was show was shown in the exhibition "Degrees of Freedom," organized as part of the course "In Dialogue with Robotics," led by Bassam el Baroni as part of the curriculum at the Dutch Art Institure.

In a world where almost everybody is a cyborg, and robots that take control of the globe to dominate or extinguish humanity are not less feared then already 30 years ago, but instead seem much more likely to become real - opinions are binary. There is no grey in today’s pencil-case.

The myth of the Golem touches the core of human thinking: it is the myth of a better being, the hope to cross boundaries of a nature forever unbeknownst to us - because we can’t access it. The dream of leaving labour behind,making a new, improved world, slaveless and inhabited only by free, classless, de-gendered beings. The collective creation of a better tomorrow. But what if the Golem awakens and proves to be stronger, faster, better, higher than humans? A veritable bête noire.

The promise and peril of this techno-fairytale are deeply intertwined. Some say: fire kept us warm cooked us food and shed light, but it also burned our houses down.

Let’s just have a look at a little experiment: two A.I. systems in dialogue in a controlled environment, the newest, more sophisticated model Wendy2000, and its early predecessor, Wendy17. Let’s see where the conversation takes them!

Oh what a crazy time to be (still) alive!