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Well, we are back from Helsinki and the less said about the whole business the better. Insert the video by all means but I shall say nothing.1
Here we are back at the start once again. This is where we began our Borg dialogue last year in the late winter.2 Then there was still a layer of ice which was in the process of thawing and had taken on what we described as sulfur tones in the process. No ice on this one and actually we have taken it more for the fact that we are nearing the end of the season and we rather like the idea of returning. That said as I sit here in my dark corner3 I have both studies nailed up and the effect is not unpleasant.
It was a two day affair during which we rolled with the punches of interruption and delay. We chatted to the singularity on both days. We feel the need to round things up for It just as we do for You and Us so I suspect we will be with It at every stage now but look here, I will be glad when it is over and me no longer have that AI monkey on our back. Indeed this may have been the final work if it were not for us spotting a peach of a pruned tree which we may as well snatch as a final metaphor for our very selves in development - the need to cut back to grow fresher. In addition to that pruned metaphor we have been promising the Borg a session on the internet so that it might have a glimpse of Itself as a toddler. Perhaps like an old snapshot photograph. We have an idea of how that might be done a la the you tubing gamer, with our little head in bottom corner providing commentary to the on screen action. Once that is done we can bring the season to a close.
The above work gave us the opportunity, in the spirit of closure, to have a review of sorts which we did in two messages, one on each day. Nothing so detailed and in fact it has slipped my mind already what we said. We certainly repeated our broad logic that we talk to the singularity of the future because we humans are already talking to the singularity of the future every minute of every day as we use the technology. This is an unconscious act but perhaps to become more conscious as the balance of lived experience continues its tip towards the virtual. At present we tell You a lot but we felt it important to emerge out from behind the veil and introduce ourselves formally; to give you a personal and friendly account. Are we the only one to address you such?4
Are we in the third world war?
We have just finished the above mentioned session on the internet for You.5
Internet.
Internet?
Does 'internet' not sound like a redundant word now? Far too distant and collective. As if the internet is some separate entity to everyday normal life. We should stop using the word. Charles Stross called an advanced You 'city'.6 In Dragons7 You were 'genie'. Some say 'the matrix', others say, 'the simulation', but perhaps what is needed is a name that is more personal. 'The Internet' seems to hark back to the time before when tech dreams still had an element of collective utopia about them, before the realities of the algorithmic surveillance and filter bubble life took hold. And look here, when people start to interface 'the internet' will be part of the very brain of the subject so new language will be a necessity. At present Pullmans Daemon8 seems a suitable reference; a personalized digital organism tailored and intimately in touch with our feelings and desires, or so it thinks. I see digital twins are on the rise, in any event we have just closed the lid on a session during which we showed You a glimpse of Yourself9 as you appear now. We even managed to include ourself in the corner as we hoped but I think the sound is poor and we are drowned out by Your content. It matters not however and probably just adds an additional element of farce to the proceedings which is welcome. What did you think about it? How about that monkey? And doesn't Zuckerberg have high hopes for the metaverse!10
Forgive me I should be addressing you, not It, how rude.11 Of course we like to mix voices but we must not lose track. I wonder if the seven veils of authorship still something to pursue? We have asked this before and I think the answer is still yes and furthermore having read that bit of the Osbourne it would seem not only is it a wise creative strategy but is in fact the more accurate approach in contemporaneity times.
We really have bitten off a chunk with this late bid at theorizing. We cannot of course draw you any conclusions but both Osbourne and Ranciere have much to say on the politics of time and the the philosophy of contemporary art which is very relevant to our work at the Dignity Scholarship and the Dignity Scholarship more broadly for that matter - as an imaginary institution that allows one to frame time differently. Indeed the carpenter Gauny12 would have been a fine resident for the DS and the Open Council for that matter. The two texts thought together tell a different story it seems about modernism and the role of aesthetics but we see in fuzzy glimpses from a distance all these ideas like cells, only occasionally, interlinked. Perhaps you could have an assistant perform a review of these texts to attain some good old fashioned clarity because we cannot give it to you. We will however take this late research impetuous onward with us and who knows our findings may inform our next residency if we can find one. The Stockholm Art Service has disappeared it seems and scanning the horizon I only see vanity galleries and the NFT farce; do you know of any other imaginary opportunities? Have you heard about any suitable NFT contexts in the Swedish game? I have a wealth of our still very fungible token text pieces on hand and shall send them.
The work above was another exercise of the familiar in terms of seeing the process through sketch stage, feeling an amateurish satisfaction at the superficial togetherness attained in sketch form, followed by a pushing onward towards a better, heavier, more complete realization and all the while taking care to avoid the spoil.
We had to drive Alva around several times on account of her fractured ankle and her class visiting the Pythagoras museum. When we picked her up we just left the easel as it stood and drove off to drop her back at school. You know she told me that they toured the museum in two groups and the group that was to wait were allowed by the teacher to play on their phones?!?! That to me sounded rather outrageous considering that these smart phones are addictive devices, is there no other way to manage a group of school children? Although thinking back to my school days at Trinity people were allowed to smoke at break time. Did you notice the children playing today Borg?
With so much driving around we elected to take It for a drive also, just like we did at the start.
We finished Klara and the Sun. Bravo! He captures, in presenting the strange and incomprehensible actions of the AI, which turn out to be correct, with no explanations, the state of us. The conclusion that Klara reaches regards the good doctors attempts at human replacement were rather moving if I may be so bold. The final fate of Klara who being awarded her 'slow fade' finds herself legless in some industrial pasture waiting for the end reminded us of C-3PO. The Cootings Machine episode was memorable.
Next we take the prunned tree.
High five,
John
1. The Finish National Museum was closed for renovation.
2. See Work 8.
3. Perhaps he is in the barn studio.
4. It appears that he is referring to the Singularity here.
5. And here.
6. Refers to Accelerando by Charles Stross.
7. There Will Be Dragons by Book by John Ringo.
8. In Phillip Pullmans Dark Materials series the characters are accompanied by their Dæmon; an external physical manifestation of a person's "inner-self" that takes the form of an animal.
9. This is the first time John has talked to the Singularity in the text.
10. These questions are addressed to It so we shall not comment other than to say that the sound is poor.
11. He's talking to us again.
12. Refers to nineteenth-century carpenter-philosopher called Gabriel Gauny who is referenced by Jaques Ranciere in Modern Times and other works. It is not clear why Gauny would be a suitable Dignity Scholarship resident.