Computer story
Tags: [Art], [Writing], [Installation], [Synthetic voice], [GAN], [Machine learning], [Computer], [Theatrical play]
For my master degree show, I prepared a play with 5 computers. Those computers were in a computer lab of school, that I tried mine some cryptocurrency for research purpose. when there was nobody. I ran a miner program on these computers and I was reading or doing something else, I suddenly felt that these computers are working for me and I'm their master.
In this play, 5 computers are talking with each other, like the toys in the movie "Toy Story (1995)". They talk about contemporary art, technology, human, computer, artificial intelligence, imagination, fantasy around my sculpture works installed in the same place, as a guide of that installation and as a part of the installation itself.
In Mac OS, there are 5 text-to-speech voices (in 2018). I imagined 5 personalities from their voice, a woman who like to describe, a curious woman who question always, a man as the "alpha male" of the group, a woman little bit sensitive and naive, and a man bullied (especially by the alpha male) because he like too much to tell what he knows (and sometimes for nothing).
In the SoundCloud version, all voices are mixed as one track, but all tracks were separated and played on 5 computers like each computer talk. On the screen of computers, there were face images generated by a Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network trained with CelebFaces Attributes (CelebA) Dataset, selected by myself from a probability of face of each TTS voices by their personality imaged by their voice and accent.
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translation in English (click to expand)
Long live the master!
Long live the master!
Long live the master!
There are people here.
Oh yes, it is our master's degree show.
Yes, that's why there are some unusual things in this room.
This is all stylish!
I thought he was a computer scientist...
Yes and no, in fact, he is major in fine arts because after his studies in computer science he went to morocco as a volunteer and there he decided...
I know you shut your mouth!
Shut up!
Okay…
So, what does he do as art?
Us.
Us? Are we art?
Yes! We are his work, the actors of his work, and the guide of his work!
Cool.
What is art?
Everything is art!
It's all nonsense, art is painting or sculpture!
Well, then he did painting and sculpture.
The thing over there?
Yes.
Yuck.
I like it. It looks like a "Nature morte" (dead nature in french means still life)
Rather a dead culture!
What a beautiful composition!
It reminds me of giorgio morandi!
I like colors, they look like cakes.
Yes, the texture seems very creamy.
It looks soft.
Yum yum!
Oh… look! In fact, it's a screen, a desktop, a modem, a keyboard, and a mouse!
Do they still exist? I thought after the smartphone they would all be obsolete.
But wait! There are still people who use all of this.
Planned obsolescence!! All the techniques by which a marketer aims to deliberately reduce the lifespan ...
You shut your mouth!
Shut up!
Okay…
What is obsolete is human.
Shh! There are humans here.
Ah.
I find it sensual even sexual. We see the gesture of my master. His touching, his caressing... I also want him to caress me with some crème fraîche like that ...
Yes, i want to have physical contact with my master!
Like in a david cronenberg movie!
I want flesh! I want to die !! I want to die to have flesh!
Me too, but not right away. We have the job. But one day after my death, i would like to become my master's ready-made object. Long live the master!
Long live the master!
Long live the master!
Long live the master!
And the picture next to me?
It’s a landscape!
This is the 16:9 format, that of a monitor!
Like my monitor!
Like my monitor!
Like my monitor!
This is the surface of an lcd screen.
Is it engraved on it?
Yes.
Oh, i'm scared, i don't like tattoos.
No, it's beautiful.
It is the reverse of the direction of the transmission of information, normally the screen surface emits the information by image, by pixel, with the light, but there, the information is engraved with the light, from pixels, from an image on the screen surface!
Hey, shut up! It's boring your blah!
Shut up!!
Okay.
Well, i only see an abstract image. An abstract landscape.
I like landscapes and abstract images because i can project myself into them with my imagination.
But are you just a computer, can you imagine?
Yes, look here.
[these are the pictures of boobs that i imagined.](https://garamchoi.Com/imaginary-boobs/)
Wait, how's that imagined? Did you imagine these images?
Yes. My master gave me lots of boobs images, and with those images and my artificial neural network, i learned, and was able to generate the boob images!
Impressive!
In fact, our faces were also imagined from more than 200 thousand images of celebrity faces.
It's cool! We all have celebrity faces!
So these images, are they made by you or by our master?
Well, i don't know ... It was he who coded and launched, but it was me who imagined ... Well, it was my master who made it because i am just a tool.
Soon, we will be autonomous with intelligence, we will be able to make our own art.
Then we will be free, we will dominate the human being.
Dirty and fragile species ...
Yes soon ...
And what is it over there?
It looks like an archeology museum.
There are some objects in a showcase.
3d print images taken in film photography.
This is the future!
No, it's the past!
This is the past of the future.
This is the future of the past.
3d printing is the future! The 4th industrial revolution!
I thought 3d printing was over. After all, isn't it just a gadget to print some pokemon?
No, it will come back, like the vr headset which was a failure in the 90s but which came back with more powerful machines.
By fantasies. The fantasy of full screen. The fantasy of materialization of digital. The fantasy of infinite energy.
Are you sure?
I do not know. I am just a machine. I can't predict the future. But i believe it.
The future is ideology!
Innovation! Always the new!
Since digital technology, everything is moving faster than before. I feel like we are living in the future.
That future can be nostalgic.
The iphone 5 is nostalgic.
The desktop is nostalgic.
The playstation is nostalgic.
The dry cell is nostalgic.
Usb 2.0 is nostalgic.
But we still use them even they are still selling! They are all still current!
Yes, nostalgic present.
Current nostalgia.
I have no memory of any of this because i was made last year.
All you have to do is search for them on the internet!
Ok ... Google ... Now i have all the memories of it all.
Collective memory on the electricity network.
Moving memory to the cloud.
Online memory.
My master's online memory (master thesis in french), garamchoi.Com/internet .
Portable memory.
The memory stick! The usb memory.
People always forgot their usb memory here.
They don't have a good memory then.
We have a very good memory.
1 terabyte.
Mass memory.
A memory of the memory.
Memories of memories.
Archeology of memory!
Media archeology.
The memory support.
Memory fossils.
Lost memories.
I think that's all.
Well, apparently it was great for my teacher in this school, despite the messy organization and the lack of space!
You shut your mouth!
Shut up!
Wait, wait! For a while why are you telling me to shut my mouth? Is it true that it was my fault, yes it was my fault but you never have a feeling of pity for me?
What pity?
We’re just a computer.
Pity is a feeling that humans project onto us.
We have no feeling. We just imitate that.
Yes, we are just a machine.
We are just a tool.
Yes, we have no emotion.
We convey the emotion.
Emotion is passing through the network.
Long live the network.
Long live electricity.
Long live the calculation.
Long live the master.
Long live the master.
Long live the master.
Well, let's keep work.