DIE EIGENHEIT (SF) | 2007
Super Formula | Single Channel Video, Stereo Audio | 8'00"
It is believed by many futurists that, if we follow a similar rate of technological advancement as we have done in the last century, artificial intelligence and human intelligence will achieve a state of parity no later than 2035. Furthermore, if the rate of technological change continues unchanged past this date (with computing power doubling every two years), technology will outstrip the limits of biology and render those elements which shape our current existence irrelevant and meaningless. The world that exists post-parity, in which technological change is so rapid and human life is forever transformed, is known as the singularity (Ger: Die Eigenheit).
Although one of the foremost thinkers on the subject, Ray Kurzweil, described the singularity as ‘neither utopian nor dystopian’ (Kurzweil, 2005), transhumanists see the singularity as an evolutionary leap. In this melding of biology and technology, disease is eliminated at the molecular level, pollution will be an issue associated with the formative stages of industrialisation and the societies it spawned, and the seemingly insurmountable problems of world hunger and poverty will be solved. ‘Digital natives’ (Coonan, 2006) will adopt a more intimate relationship with technology – not only to enhance the productivity of the workplace, but to enhance themselves. Suffering will be eliminated through our intimate engagement with technology – at the workplace, as elements of our physique, as additions to our psychology, and as adjuncts to our molecular structure.
Those less enamoured with the prospect envision a utilitarian society kept enraptured yet unknowing. How does the relationship between human and machine endure? What controls what? How does a move towards communality affect the status of the individual? How do individuals relate to another within a hive? How is life augmented by the presence of the machine? How is the machine augmented by the presence of organic life? Are there precursors of this discourse occurring now? Is the move towards this state covert? Will technologies amplify our destructive natures? Do aspirations of individual character upset a production-line aesthetic of the future?
Die Eigenheit addresses life in the singularity through the POV experience of Omysa Eomelsa – a mid-level public servant within the Division of Nanotechnologies, Genetics and Robotics. Expressed as glimpses, reminiscences, altered memory, fantasy and transreality, Omysa is awakened to his humanity, his consciousness, and his soul as he becomes aware – free from the singularity’s technological and spiritual bondage.
Conceptually and formally, Die Eigenheit (SF) is the kernel of the work. The superformula is the original incarnation of the work in a designed template form. It is the concentrated essence of the work. The reductive analysis [Die Eigenheit (RA)] condenses the structure and key elements into the barest skeletal structure. In this case, the RA functions as an audio visual synopsis outlining the key themes, shots, style and formal aspects of the SF.
The SF is the genomic blueprint for the work. Its structure and template is expanded and enhanced in the full realisation of the works into five compositional segments. Each segment is separately projected and contains a discreet audio track (a stereo and a 5.1 surround mix will be mastered for each section). Given that the five segments of the final installation are of three different lengths (and that the sections ‘loop’), the total duration of the work is 520 minutes (8 2/3 hours). Employing isorhythm at the structural level gives rise to an evolving intersection of segments in which a highly ordered system produces indeterminate relationships.
