EPHEMERAL is currently premiering in the exhibition Future Tense: Art, Complexity, and Uncertainty curated by David Familian and presented at UC Irvine Beall Center for Art + Technology.
The exhibition will be on view: August 24 – December 14, 2024
The Future Tense exhibition is part of the third regional collaboration in the PST ART: Art & Science Collide. PST ART is the largest art event in the United States and a landmark regional event in California, exploring the intersections of art and science.
Promovideo of Ephemeral / Hege Tapio @ 2024 BONO
Ephemeral is tapping into the topic of emotion technology and Emotional AI.
This questionable growing area is sought to present the next frontier of humanizing AI, including new technological developments expanding current layers of interface with the human. Ephemeral is presenting a speculative yet close to real concept of what it would look like if (or when) venture capitalists embrace emotion technology.
The artwork Ephemeral is presenting the viewer a speculative yet close to real concept of what it would look like if (or when) venture capitalists embrace emotion technology. By going far beyond analyzing facial expressions or tracking biometry to figure out how you feel, Ephemeral is presenting their novel technology latching on to harvest the biochemistry of emotions. The artwork consists of a short movie and a glass monter with of objects, text and illustrations. Watching the short movie we see a CEO figure presenting the visions of creating designed emotions and explaining the technological solutions they offer. By making use of novel microfluidic technology and AI, Ephemeral has allegedly developed two different implants: the first implant (the “harvester”), is for registering biochemical data that is emotion related (neuropeptides). This harvested data is compiled into their emotion database, that is used for analyzing biochemical constructs in combination with self report data, and to synthesize new combinations with the aid of AI to replicate or produce novel emotions.
The other implant solution is for administering emotions by delivering these synthesized neuropeptides into a human body. A glass-monter next to the screen is displaying a prototype of the silicone implant and a selection of sealed bottles containing synthesized neuropeptides.
The response I have received during making this artwork has been a mix of delightful dread, it has provoked a lot of reactions and generated thoughtful discussions about what such technological solution might lead to, but I think the most worrying part is when scientists have asked me if I have patented the solution.
The Ephemeral project seeks to explore the concept of utilizing and constructing human emotions in a time where human capabilities are contested by technology with powerful algorithms of artificial intelligence. A time where the concept of human qualities is presented as possible to replicate digitally. The understanding of how all the complex factors such as genetic dispositions, epigenetic influence, environmental, social, bacterial and biochemical influences are affecting and modulating our emotions is becoming more known. Still, this knowledge must battle with the heritage and conceptions of viewing living systems as something we can replicate, control and organize with the aid of machines and tools. This is further complicated when adding the present culture that flavors our thinking on human enhancements and pharmaceutical modifications to functions of the body and mind. By introducing the artistic founded concept that we could have access to the biochemical information related to emotions, and be able to construct new designed combinations of neuropeptides to induce novel emotions is adding to this messiness. The art project is perhaps with intent designed as a provocation, but most of all as an artistic tool initiating the discussions on the aforementioned issues, and to explore its messy implications. By presenting probable yet speculative solutions for how to detect and deliver emotions, wrapped up in the rhetoric and esthetics of commercialized oriented innovation technology, the fictitious company of Ephemeral came into fruition.
Collaborations and creditations
The art project Ephemeral developed as part of my phd research connected with FeLT- Futures of Living Technologies at OsloMet. Ephemeral short movie was shot and edited by filmphotographer Bo B. Randulff. Actor Barbara Bang was sourced by Peppercasting. Stavanger Concert House and Stavanger University provided filming locations. As part of the Beall Center Black Box Residency Project, the concepts and objects for the installation developed through conversations with Jaqueline Linnes of the Purdue Linnes Lab and in collaboration with Elliot Hui of the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering. The introduction to Microfluidic technology, hands on practice and device production of prototype silicone implant, was made in collaboration with Associate Professor Elliot Hui, Samueli School of Engineering UCI and Phd students Kayla Gee, Samir Malhotra and Yoo Na Kim from Department of Biomedical Engineering. The final prototype for the silicone implant, construction of buffer solution for neuropeptides and lab space was provided by University of Stavanger, under supervision of Kåre B.Jørgensen and Krista Michelle Kaster from Department of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Engineering. The artwork Ephemeral was made possible with support from the UC Irvine Beall Center for Art + Technology and Getty.