EVOLUCION, courtesy of the artist

Hipertèlia stems from the intention of proposing alternative approaches to the futures of artificial intelligence as viewed from art and critical thinking. Unlike other proposals operating within the junctions of AI and art – generally focused on the creative possibilities of machines – this project revolves around questioning, researching and experimenting on the characteristics that artificial cognitive systems must have in order to be considered existing, sentient organisms. The proposal in fact argues that we can only talk about any kind of creativity in machines after this process of technical system autonomy (although this is another subject that is not dealt with here).

The main question behind this artistic research process would be as follows: Are we able to accept artificial inorganic systems as an independent, active part of shaping the world? And if so, what conditions must these systems fulfill?

This question should not be viewed as a comparison of ‘how human’ or ‘how natural’ an artificial cognitive system should be, but rather it should be understood as a window to the conception of non-conscious artificial cognitive systems as part of common existence in the world. At a time when the distinction between nature and culture has ceased to be sufficient to understand the present, multi-species coexistence no longer refers merely to the relationships between the human and the non-human. Hipertèlia suggests including technical objects in this sum.

Apart from questioning the technological resources required to develop artificial ‘consciousnesses,’ the proposal intends to argue that their possibilities of existence are also based on a question of philosophical attribution. AI has traditionally always been presented as a simulation of the human mind, and it has attempted to define itself through a set of philosophical assumptions claiming to be universal: rationalism, dualism, formalism and mechanicism. These assumptions create a specific perspective from which the problem of how to model a mind has been approached. The backdrop to this proposal is the premise that we must form partnerships with alternative philosophical traditions in order to articulate a viable alternative to the dominant AI computational metaphor.

Based on this, the project’s methodology has focused on suggesting a number of conditions that algorithmic systems must fulfill in order to be considered cognitive, based on alternative philosophical proposals. The main aim has been to form a practical symbiosis between technoscience and philosophy through art by creating a sensitive ecosystem of handcrafted electronic artifacts. These devices are situated away from the need for any functionality or productivity. They merely serve the purpose of free experimentation on non-conscious cognition.

GENESIS, courtesy of the artist

The whole re-enacts the evolution of technological systems into organic systems through the expository composition of the space, divided into six interrelated phases or installations: genesis, simulation, replication, creation, evolution and revolution. Visitors can find a brief summary of what inspires each of these phases or nodes on the walls of the exhibition. According to their basic physiognomy, code and emergent autonomous development, the devices use physical-digital behaviors to simulate processes that invite us to identify them as sentient organisms. The algorithmic, mechanical structure of the artistic object itself is offered to the public as a dramaturgical device that plays the role of expressing its own way of existing.

Hipertèlia aims to illustrate how artistic research plays a decisive role in developing technoscientific knowledge. Understanding technology as culture will help us to shatter the monolithic view of technological development and to accept the coexistence of technodiversities. This process harbors the hope that we will identify our agency and responsibility in the technological and cultural development that is in store for us.