Cyborgs meet AI
The genesis of cyborgs from Duchamp’s bachelors and related to the manifesto of Donna Haraway, which I presented for the exhibition 27 years ago, has now – initiated by a reenactment of the exhibition WHEN TEKKNO TURNS TO SOUND OF POETRY, curated by Sabeth Buchmann and Juliane Rebentisch and held at the Stadthalle Zurich in 1994 – made acquaintance with artificial intelligence software.
The cyborgs’ image data was converted to audio data and AI-controlled image recognition was performed. This application included the option of adding randomized adjectives. Some of the image recognition trials by AI traverse the 4 video sequences as a text crawl at the bottom of the image. The results of the AI-generated conversion of image material into music and audio data are the starting point of the audio track accompanying the sequences. The computer has thus become an active participant in the artistic production and opens up a new facet of cyborgism.
The reconstruction of the exhibition WHEN TEKKNO TURNS TO SOUND OF POETRY was related to the presentation of the Phantom Cinema, Arsenal and opened at the House of World Cultures (Haus der Kulturen der Welt) in March 22.