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welcome to the HYP3R R34L

Blurring the lines between human and machine; utilizing technology as an artistic medium to analyze the fragmentation of one's self that moves beyond mundane muscle past physicality through our liquid, crystalized, displays into a realm that is digitally mediated yet readily occupied. Projecting past our bodies, merging within this abstracted realm that is the digital space. HYP3R R34L consists of work grappling with identity and augmented human experience.

GAME[✝]OVER

2022 

Video (color, sound collage), GPT-J, hacked Miitomo

16:9, 1m25

/statement

Recently, I had the privilege of seeing the Shigeko Kubota exhibition at MoMA. While it was indeed an excellent exhibition, one in which its wall labeling was careful to not envelop her within her spouse Nam June Paik or Fluxus’ shadow, it was hard to not walk away with a sense of alexithymia. While her sculptural video installation works were among the first acquired by the museum in this medium back in the ’70s, they were not placed on view until now - the first solo survey for the artist in the US, sadly years after her death. This prolific artist never stopped documenting, constantly filming her life and surroundings. While I felt a familiar cynicism of is this my fate as a femme artist? I decided to let it fuel the inner creative fire rather than become despondent and defeatist. However, I can’t shake that feeling – are AFAB artists destined to ‘be discovered’ at 80 years of age, or worse yet, after they have died? 

In this piece, I explore notions of mortality. Blurring the lines between machine + human, technology + mysticism; prompts and responses between myself and the AI are abstracted further through avatar rendering and video manipulation(s).

Notavibe™

(a grime-y proposition)

2022 

Video, color, sound collage, GPT-J, hacked Miitomo

16:9, 1m44

/statement

In the hyper-reality of social media theatrics and its incessant gravitational orbit to the cult of celebrity, 2021 into 2022 markedly was a year where my feed, topics of conversation amongst friends, and mind were bombarded with Elon Musk and Grimes (aka Grusk). In particular, Grimes’ TikToks I found to be altogether absurd. Moreover, I have a deep disdain for Elon Musk and by extension Grimes in her defense of him. No billionaire, who intrinsically must exploit and plunder for such incomprehensible wealth, can be altruistic and humanitarian. From shady coups to steal CEO titles at Tesla; to family money related to apartheid blood emerald mining; exploitative mining of lithium for batteries; I find there to be nothing visionary or revolutionary about a technofascist such as Musk. 

Strangely, in one of Grimes’ TikToks propositioning to the communists, she has in the background a character from the manga and anime series Berserk named Griffith; an extremely vile figure who heinously betrays all that are close to him and, by extension, the entirety of humanity effectively destroying his world. The mind can’t help but wonder if there’s a latent connection to Musk in this regard.

The resulting artworks combine video art techniques with the usage of AI to cheekily critique a couple that I feel rather antagonistic toward.

Process

Miitomo was a Nintendo mobile app game that was deactivated back in 2018 due to a lack of moderation and pervasive abuse of and on the platform. However, it is possible to use fan patches to access this game with android phones or ‘jailbroken’ iphones. I really wanted to have something that deviated very far from the typical options available for text-to-speech. Miitomo not only offers customization of avatar/character/mii in appearance but also with vocals. I created a character that I feel is representative of me but also one that I think sounds rather ridiculous which is exactly the effect I wanted as I knew I wished to use screen recordings from this mii to create artworks. 

For this project, I gave short prompts to text generative model AI/ML GPT-J. The AI interpretations provided surprises and delights in how wondrously strange they would derail from the original source. Working from this, I used Miitomo’s answering of questions mechanic and then screen recorded my character in all their shrill glory. Screen recordings were then remixed into new pieces.