Documentation video 



Hands are part of the body language of humans. Sometimes they seem to possess a life of their own and communicate more than what their owner means to convey, opening up hidden emotions and involuntary messages.

While we put AI on a pedestal for its intelligence, it’s depiction of our hands in its early stages tells a different story. Where humans give more and more tasks -like image making- out of hands to Artificial Intelligences, digital and physical spaces are merging. Within the unclear distinction between physical and digital reality, hands, known for communicating hidden messages, now reveal one too. AI deforms and multiplies them. These anomalies not only reveal that these hands are generated by AI, moreover, that AI is dependent on human hands as tools to grasp reality – through their (data-labeling) clicks on a trackpad and as source material for training data. Translating these resources and dependencies that underlie AI technology into tangible forms, expose unfamiliar gestures and discarded training data, that reflect our joint struggle to grasp each other’s realities.

In this symbiotic relationship, hands are, like a visible sign under the surface, signaling a juggle between trust and sacrifice, recognition and estrangement in the formation of our reality.


    [Accompanying essay ’Handwerker’ on request ︎]





Teaser

Documentation video 

‘’The relationship with my phone used to feel like a one-way relationship. But now it is getting more intelligent and is able to talk back sometimes. Swiping from advertisement to advertisement, I’m in a continuous feedback loop of who I consciously- but also unconsciously am. Or maybe; of who I should be?’’

This ongoing conversation is laid bare in a photobook novel, where brutally honest data is kept chronologically. The feedback loop manifests itself directly, with a huge delay, or not at all. It is not always clear what influences what, yet biases present themselves. In the narrative, elements like maintaining a healthy lifestyle, migration and being in a relationship are misconstrued as signs of pregnancy, contrary to reality. These assumptions found in the personalized ads, result in a distored self-perception. As the story unfolds, the ads seem to take sides, endorsing the partner's perspective in conflicts and subtly probing whether the user is trapped in a toxic relationship. Initially promoting casual alcohol consumption and dating, the ads gradually escalate to the point of advocating behaviors that result in liver problems and sexually transmitted diseases.

Over 770 million security cameras worldwide are watching over us. Even though, they are here to secure us from danger -like yet another god who is always by our side- it is easy to enter their minds and become a viewer through their eyes. While breaking into surveillance cameras, I started to feel empathy for them. I developed the tendency to recognize animalistic- and human traits in security systems. A sense of pareidolia might even occur to them -the security systems- as well. Seeing familiarities where there are none.

How do they view themselves? Who’s domesticating who?