CHANTIER IA | Exhibition 2024
Under the Surface: A Solaristic Study
Can we really consider the surface of things without raising the issue of their depths? Let’s think in terms of plural depths, like our world and its multiple parallel realities, its prism of perspectives to which we never fully gain access. Similarly, what artificial intelligence (AI) expresses on screen comes from depths to which we have no access: a black box that remains opaque to this day. The algorithmic “mystery” of AI thus unfolds vertically, from an unfathomable depth to the emergence of a moving surface. This surface-depth relationship is the essential dialectic that enables the emergence of the unthought that characterizes the AI imaginary.
Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972), based on the novel of the same name (1961) by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006), is considered one of the most important science-fiction films in the history of cinema. The protoplasmic ocean of the planet Solaris, studied during a space mission, seems to have a hold on the crew’s psychological state: it generates the manifestation of entities from their memories – like digital twins. Imagined more than 60 years ago, this conscious, creative and active sea – whose solaristics is the study – eerily echoes the algorithmic magma of AI and the imaginary that emerges from it. The same AI that now occupies a growing space in the details of our lives, both above and below the surface.
Memo Akten’s video work Waves 2.0: Terra (2023) evokes this hazy surface, hinting at an underlying turmoil. Produced using computer simulation and artificial intelligence, it is part of a series that has been in progress for the past ten years. Drawing on the history of artistic and scientific studies of the oceans and their waves, the work is inspired by the great masters of painting such as Turner and Hokusai. A sophisticated and delicate simulation of a no less complex natural phenomenon – that of the oceans – this dramatic yet contemplative staging invites us to revisit our shared perspectives.
A powerful symbol of the sublime in art, the changing mood of the ocean suggests the encounter of fundamental, unpredictable forces operating in the shadows. And what can be seen on its surface can deceive us about the internal activity that modulates its shimmering surface: an inner “intelligence” is at work, containing all the possibilities that can take root, materialize and emerge into existence. Like the sea in Solaris, waves, foam and other surface “events” are visible expressions of the underwater calculating force that generates the complexity of textures, light and movement.
Juliette Lusven’s installation Transatlantic Visions (2022) reveals the depths of this ocean and what it contains beyond its organic qualities. It consists of a complex set of interlaced screens and projections, through which visual content is circulated and articulated, drawing on the computer program “Sounding (the World)”. The latter is specifically designed to investigate the underwater topography of the Internet. It is this transatlantic infrastructure that is investigated here, the fulcrum of our global connectivity, as concrete as it is imperceptible – the myth of technological immateriality being questioned and examined at the same time.
A mimesis of the networking made possible by fiber optics, the installation’s interconnected cabling outlines a space for reflection on our oceanic and terrestrial ecosystems, and how they negotiate their cohabitation with our hyperconnected reality. Like a solaristic study – in which the fictitious sea of Solaris is scrutinized, evaluated, explored and analyzed – the work functions as an instrument for probing this underlying universe where information transmission processes operate. Beneath the surface – of both the ocean and the screen – lies this system, this structure that conditions the existence of the Internet, and by default that of AI processes.
Curator: Nathalie Bachand
📸 © Juliette Lusven | freeze frame: video bathymetric flow of the Apollo cable’s underwater route (2003, 13,000 km) between Shirley, NY, USA, Bude, UK, Lannion, France and Manasquan, NJ, USA (related to Transatlantic Visions installation).
Transatlantic Visions was first presented at Galerie ELEKTRA in Montreal, winter 2022. Sporobole is pleased to welcome a new version of the work in collaboration with Max Boutin and Marc-André Cossette.