Space Grannies, Useless JPGs and Quasi Robots
Space Grannies, Useless JPGs and Quasi Robots
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things I found
1. Into the space ship, Granny
The Grannies (2019) is a documentary short film created inside Red Dead Redemption 2. A group of players — Marigold Bartlett, Andrew Brophy, Ian MacLarty, Kalonica Quigley & friends aka The Grannies — venture beyond the boundaries of the video game. Peeking behind the curtain of the virtual world they discover an ethereal space that reveals the humanity and materiality of digital creations. Directed by Marie Foulston and edited by Luke Neher.
It made me think of my favourite Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay, The Space Crone (1976).
2. Sensing, more than reading
Hallucinating sense in the era of infinity-content is a great article by Caroline Busta, don’t miss it. I extracted this essential quote:
“But what if, for better or worse, this non-reading mode is a form of adaptation: an evolutionary step in which we’ve learned to scan, like machines, for keywords and other attributes that allow for data-chunking, quickly aligning a piece of content with this or that larger theme or political persuasion? What if, in a time of infinity-content, a meta reading of the shape and feel of content has become a survival skill? The ability to intuit a viable meaning via surface-level qualities—ones that are neither text nor image but a secret third thing—is now essential for negotiating our sprawling information space. Perhaps we’re tapping into a more primal human intelligence.”
3. The Quasi Robots
In 2008 Nicolas Anatol Baginski made the “Quasi Robots”, a family of autonomous, disabled machines that are design to provoke emotional response. Probably the weirdest piece of robotic/ai art I’ve ever encountered.
4. 500,000 JPGs and no plans
Eryk Salvaggio made this delightful video piece inspired by a Reddit post. It encapsulates the generative AI frenzy so well.
I’ve got 20,000 jpgs and no plans
I’ve 30,000 jpgs and no ideas
for what to do with them
I’ve got 40,000 jpgs on a hard drive
what do you guys do with all these pictures
5. Oh, Ballard
One of the dozens incredible predictions by J.G. Ballard. This comes from the 1977 essay “Future of the Future”, published on Vogue.
6. Cyclops: a speculative reality artwork
Cyclops, by Trevor Paglen, is a networked performance, collaborative narrative, and alternate-reality-game designed to be played by groups of people working together across the word.
“Paglen’s interactive speculative reality artwork, titled CYCLOPS, takes the audience on a journey through the world of 1960s-era CIA mind control experiments, psychological operations, and unexplained historical anomalies. For this new work, the artist drew inspiration from Ed Ruscha’s Rocky II sculpture hidden in the Mojave Desert; collisions of facts and fictions in Benjamín Labatut’s book When We Cease to Understand the World; and Internet-era enigmas such as the “Cicada 3301” project.”
7. I laughed, I cried, It became a part of me
I struggle to find the words to describe this. I’ll just copy-paste one of the comments below the video: “I laughed, I cried, It became a part of me.”
8. Generative AI is shaping reality
AI generates images of non-existent stuff all the time. But people want stuff, so they order it, and those images turn into reality. Welcome to the era of AI-assisted e-commerce aka AI-shaped reality.
[Having taken orders, Chinese factory must actually make massive AI slop gorilla sofas]
9. Virtual creatures evolving
I’m currently working on a new book on artificial intelligence and art, and I took some time to deepen my knowledge about genetic algorithms. If you’re wondering what they are, I suggest that you start here. You will be mesmerized by Karl Sims digital creatures.
things I did recently
Last May I went to Ljubljana to present the english edition of my book Exit Reality, published by NERO Editions and Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art.
While there, I took part in this super-fun lecture performance with Total Refusal titled Let’s Play: Brexit Reality We met in a dystopian, imaginary, future London and discussed some of the book’s topics while playing the video game Watch Dogs Legion.
Now the full documentation of the event is online, and you can watch it here.
On the same topic (the content of my book), I recorded a few audio interviews, that you can access below:
1. (un)real data podcast, hosted by Neja Berger and produced by AKSIOMA [ENG]
2. Radio Študent interview by Lea Sande [ENG]
3. Tisana all’Arancia podcast, hosted by Giulio Bruschini [ITA]
4. Inutile Arte podcast, hosted by Antonio Belfiore [ITA]
I also contributed to these online articles:
1. Italian edition of Vanity Fair, article by Viola Francini e Anna Maniscalco
2. Dazed magazine. article by Günseli Yalcinkaya
upcoming…
7h September 2024 - I’ll be in Mantova, hosted by Festivaletteratura, for an event I’m really looking forward to: a conversation with Edoardo Camurri and Nicolò Porcelluzzi. The title is “La realtà per davvero”
12th September 2024 - My essay “The Great Algorithm” will be republished in this incredible anthology, published by Aksioma and edited by Daphne Dragona and Domenico Quaranta. The list of contributors is astounding, I’m so honoured to be included!
The PostScriptUM Anthology (2010–2023)
Essays on Art, Technology, Society and the Environment
PRE-OREDER HERE
new entries on my bookshelf
Silvio Lorusso, What Design Can’t Do: Essays on Design and Disillusion, 2023
James Bridle, Modi di essere: Animali, piante e computer: al di là dell'intelligenza umana, 2022
Honor Levy, My First Book, 2024
Tom Marioni, Beer, Art and Philosophy: The Art of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art, 2004
J. G. Ballard, Extreme Metaphors, 2012
Edoardo Camurri, Introduzione alla realtà, 2024
BONUS IMAGE
That’s all for now! Feel free to send me an email or leave a comment.