Ph.D Symposium - INTER-1 Presentation

Below is the Abstract from a Ph.D. Symposium that took place on 30 June 2022, at Swansea College of Art. At this conference I presented my INTER-1 project:

We find ourselves at the historical intersection of a fourth industrial/technological revolution, whereby we are experiencing emerging digital technology evolving at an exponential rate. Considering this, the practice-based research that will be presented will explore the assimilation of affect through digital transformation, and it will consider the audience’ and the makers’ relationship with creative forms and objects produced and presented through digital media. For reference: “Affect here is understood, via Deleuze–Spinoza, as the effect a given object or practice has on its beholder, and on its beholder’s ‘becomings’.” (O’Sullivan, 2006: 38)

As the first of a series of experimental works that will contribute to the broader INTER- project, this practice-based presentation/intervention will involve the first screening of a digital video artwork. We enter the uncanny valley and are introduced to an entity that artist Ed Atkins would describe as being ‘born dead’. (Louisiana Channel, 2017), and one that fits with the Baudrillardian concept of the simulacrum.

A literal, yet awkward, monologue is delivered by a persona, that has the potential to become non grata, by presenting an appreciation of its’ own in-built flaws. Feigned humanity is explored through the mortal traits of honesty, empathy, intuition, identity, and an almost controversial sincerity that seeks to disarm the viewer through this candid approach. The aim is to provoke an embodied autoethnographic response through an augmented, artificially intelligent representation.

References:

Louisiana Channel (2017). Ed Atkins Interview: Something is Missing. Oct 12, 2017. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iwLbwxKys (Accessed: 27/05/22)

O’Sullivan, Simon. (2006). Art Encounters: Deleuze and Guattari Thought Beyond Representation. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

If you require further information please get in touch.