EXISTENCE BEYOND TRANSHUMANISM (4K FEATURE CLIP)

BEYOND TRANSHUMANISM THERE IS ONLY MOVEMENT AND CHANGE.

ALL IS CIRCULAR, FLUID AND ENDLESS.

The concept of Transhumanism, based on advanced technologies for body enhancement and life extension offers encouraging possibilities, but also questions the essence of human existence. This work presents the use of algorithms and weak AI for inspired human-machine video creation as a game-like journey around various aspects of transhumanism and lifeforms, and draws its inspiration from Chinese mythology and Western philosophical traditions. Through its style and storytelling, the video makes near and further away futures experienceable for the audience.

Part of ROBOSOUL AND THE DREAM OF ETHICAL HARMONY (http://petermfriess.com/robosoul.html)

EBT – Existence Beyond Transhumanism

AI support for text and image creation

Algorithm support for sound generation

Realised by PETERMFRIESS

CC BY-NC 4.0 - 2021

Transhumanism can be interpreted as an approach to mitigate aging and to extend today’s lifespan, even beyond a biological state (Vita-More 2020). On the other side, precisely a change of human physiology and mind through living conditions, radiation and gravity are necessary for the ‘Homo Stellaris’ (Johnson and Hampson 2019, 18-25). Today, interest in Transhumanism is often not driven by direct needs but commercial objectives, which makes it an interesting field for artistic intervention.

The video connects digital animation, gaming, digital poetics and sound art. Machine-driven creation helped to develop ideas beyond existing settings and conventions established by humans, representing another ‘perception’ of the world and thinking. For this project, the generation of variants for visuals, text/poetry and sound was applied in a double sense: using machines as a tool, but also understanding them as an independent ontological representation with their own ‘reasoning’ and aesthetics for exploring lifeforms around and even beyond Transhumanism, which will co-exist with machines and hybrids of all sort.