Interface: Being follows my last painting Interface. And, in my last post I wrote "My head is full of ideas. Interface is a result of thinking about a lot of things. I've been writing and researching for my PhD, and this painting has been inside my head - my imagination - for a few weeks." My PhD research focuses on the increasing interest militaries around the world are paying to the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS), as an enabler of technology, a type of fires, a manoeuvre space and a domain.
This new painting above, Interface: Being has also been inside my head for a while!
Human-Machine
The human-machine relationship is a key area of interest. As the speed of technological operation, enabled by light-speed EMS frequency transmissions, increases across inter-connected and interoperable civilian and military systems, the human being is often seen as a point of latency. I have written about this with regards to recent news that an AI military lawyer tool is under development - Theatre of War: Law and Theatre of War: Techno-Seduction
Interface: Being
Interface: Being is also the result of weeks of research and thinking. Like Interface, this new painting also references Douglas Hofstadter, the technological Cloud, real clouds, AI, binary code (01001000 01010101 01001101 01000001 01001110 instructs the word HUMAN), and questions about what it means to be a human being in the 21st century.
In this new painting, I introduce and play with the word BEING.
BEING
TO BE
BEING HUMAN
HUMAN BEING
BEING 01001000 01010101 01001101 01000001 01001110
01001000 01010101 01001101 01000001 01001110 BEING
HUMAN 01001000 01010101 01001101 01000001 01001110
Interface is both a noun and a verb, and is used as both a noun and verb in computer science, and also in studies of human beings.
In a human-machine relationship let's think about what is the interface, and what does the interfacing? Is it code - is it signal connectivity - is it human willingness or excitement (therefore, us) - is it need - maybe money - maybe power - is it speed? What do you think? How are we to BE human beings in a world dominated by accelerating developments in technology?
Painting
My choice of medium - painting - is deliberate. Painting helps me probe questions and pose new questions, without techno-interfaces or techno-interfacing. Painting is not reliant an any EMS-enabled digital or cyber technology, yet this does not preclude critique and study of these technologies. Painting is technologically and operatively detached. Detachment in a world of techno-interfaces and interfacing is a form of critical resistance.
Cheers,
Kathryn
P.S. You might be interested in my post AI: Posing Questions I wrote this in response to seeing preliminary publicity at the Barbican, London, for a program AI: More Than Human. Unfortunately, I was not in London long enough to see the exhibition program.
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