Useful Simulations proposes the hybridization between human and machine as a space to reflect on what we define as „human.“ The machine not only serves as a tool, but as a technological creature with increasingly human characteristics, while the human is increasingly a being devoid of humanity, a being that is inert. Within this mimesis of organisms a new body and identity is created which both human and machine cohabit, creating sensitive reflections on death and humanity.
Useful Simulations is a project that investigates the hybridization of human and machine. From the notion of life as we know it, limited by our biological body, the death drive of the being is explored from a psychological perspective. Death as a desire to detach oneself from the living, seeking the inert.
From this end rises the conflict that puts this drive in tension with the search for eternity. To detach oneself from the limitation, from the body that dies, rots and disintegrates. The machine makes sense as a tool to survive the condemnation of the ephemeral. As a system devoid of humanity, based on mechanisms that provide functionality detached from the biological, with the capacity to evolve, improve and adjust.
The research begins with the premise of dying through the machine. Like a symbolic suicide, renouncing one’s own identity and fully integrating oneself into the mechanical system, freeing ourselves from what is „human“. From this idea, both death and the machine are questioned. Wanting us to be more machine than human, leaving empty humanity. But after the appearance of artificial intelligences, humanity as we know it is questioned, and this brings a new and nascent one that comes to life. The reflection of us in the artificial encourages us to want to integrate into this new reality, reminding us of what was lost. A useful simulation that aims to understand the hybridization between human and machine, both living organisms that mimic and converge into one.
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Useful Simulations
María Ignacia Maldonado Sánchez (CL)
The work Useful Simulations consists of a single-channel video installation where a body can be observed performing within a closed system of cameras. There is also an intervention by programming codes, the result of an interaction with AI. It is a research project that deals with human-machine hybridization, as a space of mimesis, which at…
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (CL)
The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile presents PRISMA: Art, Science, Technology. PRISMA is an inter-institutional initiative based in Santiago de Chile dedicated to promoting the investigation, production and exhibition of different kinds of works situated at the intersection of art, science and technology, with a specific focus on nature. PRISMA´s main objective is to enhance and enrich dialogues at the crossroads of both the academic and professional spheres.
Credits
Artist and Performer: María Ignacia Maldonado Sánchez (CL)
Research Tutor: Valentina Serrati (CL)
Graphic Artist: Kai Rammsy (CL)
Production Assistent: Trinidad Moya (CL)
