Anja Musura

on paradox  

In this piece, the text oscillates back and forth repeatedly on a loop, with an upward trajectory. The line of the paradox in this work is “I know one thing – that I know nothing.” In the video, “I know one thing” appears and reappears and “that I know nothing” disappears into nothingness and reappears.

The words move rapidly, appearing, disappearing and reappearing; emphasizing and paralleling the loop that a paradox creates. As the video is in motion, the word ‘nothing’ disappears repeatedly making it visually represent empty space or ‘nothing’. The white, cloudy background creates a dreamlike, atmospheric setting for the black, tilted text to float on. The movement of the text and its repeated looping becomes disorienting, paralleling the vague abstraction of the statement which is the paradox. The text slants away from the viewer and is reversed like a mirror image, creating further disorientation. The images have a glitch-like quality.

This piece can be read as an AI’s relation to human experience; a machine speaking intelligently to its viewer, reflecting its hegemonic presence into the ether and onto the viewer. A digital ‘intelligence’ can create an idea or mimic an emotion, but it cannot relate to or feel the emotion. The steel blue of the background, the digitally typed text and the glitch hint at its presence as a technology-based object – a machine, a computer. The machine's coldness and detachment is evident in its digitized text.

This piece is a prototype for an immersive installation – a projection into a white space in large format. The piece is a clip but would repeat on loop endlessly as a projection. The text would crawl up and down the walls, repeating itself like a mantra. It would loom above the viewer, wrapping around the walls, encapsulating the entire space. It would loom as a powerful presence –repeating an ominous message of its authority while unveiling its masked awareness of its own unawareness. Its all-encompassing, gargantuan size would create a surreal experience for the viewer, encapsulating them in its meaning, visuals, repetition and movement. The piece is ominous and threatening, its power over us ever-present. It is a mirror reflection of the future and the present of technology’s gaze, its looming presence, its inability to connect with us, and the illusion of us connecting with it.