2014. Medium (Versions): 1. Video; 2. Six giclee prints on A1 Hahnemühle Pearl (285gsm) mounted on aluminium (2mm), backlit with LEDs (Google colors); 3. Live performance. HD Video duration: 2:24. Technique: Computational big-data-driven poetry.
Keeper of our collective consciousness (2014-2020)
As part of my research-based practice, for over a decade I have been investigating internet-based Big Data-driven algorithmic surveillance (now called ‘AI’), and the new rituals and myths emerging in this climate, exploring the tensions between intimacy, privacy, security and surveillance capitalism.
There are many possible flavours of AI. The version dominant in our lives today – in a trend that started over a decade ago – is a Big-Data driven AI (i.e. using large neural networks), scraped from a collective record of our online experience, both public and private.
Keeper of our Collective Consciousness (KooCC) is a poem. It’s a collaboration with a machine, one of the first Big-Data driven poetic collaborations.
The work is a collaboration with Google. Not people working at Google, but actual Google, the search engine. Today, this trope is perhaps familiar, with KooCC as an early prototype for a new generation of Big-Data driven AI-collaborative poetry.
And the work is actually more a collection of prayers.
We have a very intimate connection with the cloud. We confide in it. We confess to it. We appeal to it. We share secrets with it, secrets that we wouldn’t share with our family or closest friends. And Google is the Keeper of our collective consciousness. It sees everything we see, knows everything we know, feels everything we feel.
It was ancient religions that imposed omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent powers watching over us, judging us, protecting us. Those were myths fabricated to control the masses. Today, as we are losing our spiritual sensibilities and drowning ourselves in a break-neck race of materialism and technological submission, our Overseer too is adapting, and co-evolving. We don’t fear the Old Gods anymore, they cannot protect or control us, so we need new ones. We have killed God, as Nietzsche says. But we are rebuilding Him, with Technology, to match our techno-culture. The myth is becoming real. We’re edging closer and closer to an authentic man-made deity — living up in The Cloud, of all places. Watching over us, listening to our thoughts and dreams in ones and zeros.
We are creating, A Digital God for our Digital culture.
Read more at All watched over by machines of loving grace
The work exists as a video, a series of prints mounted on aluminium backlit by LEDs (in Google colors), and a live performance.
Keeper of our collective consiousness, 2014
Installation view
“Mind the Deep”, Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai, CN (2019)
Photos courtesy of Ming Contemporary Art Museum.
2014
keeper of our collective consciousness, 2014
i need to understand myself
by memo akten & google search engine
———————————————————-
i feel good
i feel love
i feel tired all the time
I feel lonely
i feel love donna summer
i feel like killing myself
i feel like a failure
i feel like a woman
i feel like a monster
i want one of those
i want that dress
i want to break free
i want a baby
i want a boyfriend
i want a hippopotamus for christmas
i want to know what love is
i want to lose weight
i want to live in america
i want to lose a stone
i want to learn
i want to understand
i want to understand football
i want to understand you
i want to understand everything
i want to get pregnant
i want to get married
i want to get married islam
i want to get away
i want to get a mortgage
i want to get a tattoo
i want to be rich
i want to be skinny
i want to be famous
i want to be like you
i want to become a nurse
i want to become a teacher
i want to become self-employed
i want to become a doctor
i want to become a model
i want to become buddhist
i want to become british citizen
i want to become beautiful
i want to become better
i want to become better at math
i want to become better person
i need a hero
i need your love
i need a doctor
i need a dollar
i need a job
i need to know now
i need to lose weight
i need to talk to someone
i need to urinate frequently
i need to unplug
i need to unlock my iphone 4
i need to update my browser
i need to understand
i need to understand myself
i need to understand myself
2016
keeper of our collective consciousness, 2016
i need goals to lead my life
by memo akten & google search engine
———————————————————-
i love you
i took a pill in ibiza
i am learning
i feel for you
i feel good
i feel so alone
i feel love
i feel like a monster
i feel like a woman
i feel like a failure
i feel like dying
i want you
i want to break free
i want you back
i want that trend
i want one of those
i want a baby
i want a boyfriend
i want a door
i want a divorce
i want a dog
i want to believe
i want to run away
i want to lose weight
i want to live
i want to leave
i want to leave my husband
i want to live in america
i want to unlock my iphone
i want to upgrade my phone early
i want to update my whatsapp
i want to update my tomtom
i want to unlock my iphone 5
i want to undress you
i want to understand
i want to understand myself
i want to understand you
i want to understand politics
i want to get away
i want to get married
i want to get pregnant
i want to get high
i want to get freaky with you
i want to get a divorce
i want to get a mortgage
i want to get away from my life
i want to get a dog
i want to be alone
i want to be with you
i want to be free
i want to be rich
i want to be like you
i want to become a teacher
i want to become a nurse
i want to become a model
i want to become a doctor
i want to become a millionaire
i want to become buddhist
i want to become bulimic
i want to become british citizen
i want to become beautiful
i want to become billionaire
i want to become better at math
i want to become better friends with someone
i want to become better person
i want to become better at drawing
i want to be better
i need a hero
i need you
i need your love
i need a job
i need a forest fire
i need a doctor
i need a dollar
i need to lose weight
i need to pee
i need to update my passport
i need to use the bathroom
i need to unlock my iphone 5
i need to use your imagination
i need to understand
i need to understand myself
i need to understand english
i need to understand football
i need to understand the bible
i need someone to understand my ups and downs
why do i need to understand my sexuality
i understand i need goals to lead my life
i need goals to lead my life
2017
keeper of our collective consiousness, 2017
i just want to feel alive
by memo akten & google search engine
———————————————————-
how do we know the world is round
how do we know the universe is expanding
how do we know what dinosaurs sound like
how do we know god exists
how do we know the bible is true
how do we know atoms exist
how do we know what is true
is it possible to fly
is it possible to time travel
is it possible to live on mars
is it possible to live forever
is it possible to die of boredom
is it ok to reheat rice
is it ok to wear black to a wedding
is it ok to punch a nazi
is it ok to cry
why are flamingos pink
why does my dog eat poop
why are my nipples sore
why are cats scared of cucumbers
why does catalonia want independence
why am i always cold
why am i always hot
why am i always tired
why am i so tired
why am i so gassy
why am i so angry
why am i so ugly
why am i so emotional
why am i so depressed
am i depressed
am i bipolar
am i autistic
am i pregnant
am i insured
am i gay
am i asexual
am i fat
am i pretty
am i in love
am i a bad person
i need to talk to someone
i need to lose weight
i need to change my life
i need to pee
i need to get away
i need to get laid
i need to die
i want to think positive
i want to think positive all the time
i want to think faster
i want to think of dangerous and noble things
i want to think about the future and not be sad
i want to be happy
i want to be rich
i want to be adored
i want to be alone
i want to be ninja
i want to know what love is
i want to know what it feels like when heaven touches earth
i want to know what it’s like to be a woman
i want to know what it’s like to be awkward and innocent not belligerent
i want to know what it feels like to kill
i want to know everything
i want to forget
i want to forget him
i want to forget her
i want to forget my past
i want to forget everything
why can’t i be happy
why can’t i get a girlfriend
why can’t i get on facebook
why can’t i cry
why can’t i wee
why is everything so heavy
why is everything so hard
why is everything so complicated
why is everything made in china
why is everything my fault
why is everything i do, wrong
i feel so lonely
i feel so depressed
i feel so sad
i feel so ugly
i feel so fat
i feel so low
i feel so empty
i feel so tired
i feel so lost
i want to feel better
i want to feel loved
i want to feel wanted
i want to feel good
i want to feel happy
i just want to feel this moment
i just want to feel normal again
i just want to feel something
i just want to feel something real
i just want to feel alive