Becoming the Artificial Unconscious

Yves Tanguy – Indefinite Divisibility – 1942

The first step to becoming a computer is to think like a computer. The next step to becoming a computer is to materialize those thoughts, perhaps in the form of pictures. 

The Surrealists did this with our collective unconscious. At a time in history when humans were becoming "modern", they took the dark mess of confusion that was our subconscious and made it visible. They used automatic artmaking, dream recall, and mind games like Exquisite Corpse to hack through our subconscious and bring back precious material to help us understand ourselves and what we were becoming. 

The above image is an example of the unconscious mind made visible by Yves Tanguy from 1942.

Today, we are again becoming new kinds of human. Our minds are merging with the computer algorithms we have created, so they in turn create us, in a never-ending feedback loop of evolution. 

Art has lots of purposes, but I like to think the most important purpose of all is to teach us how to be human. And today, being human has a lot do with being a computer. This is what computer-brains look like on the inside:

BigGAN-generated image by Mario Klingemann - 2019

They're also calling it social media performance art. But I think artists have been doing this for quite a while, under the name generative digital art, or algorithmic art. I just wonder what the Surrealists would say if they could see this stuff.

Post Script:

Melbourne artist and coder Sam Hains created Zero Likes, an AI trained to respond only to those lost and lonely images that miss out on attention.

Dog layers on a bed with a blanket - Sam Hains Zero Likes - 2017

Post Post Script:

First of all, the MIT Press has a journal called Leonardo. Next, here is a nice explanation of the artistic process by neuroscience researchers, written in the online science magazine Medical Express.

"Ultimately, we sought to explain the role of implicit learning processes in artistic cognition, or how the competition between different brain networks can lead to a more effective artistic intuition."

And they found that "weaker" prefrontal circuits, which are related to executive functions, can actually lead to more effective artistic cognition. The researchers refer to this phenomenon as the Andras effect.

"For example, if a photographer can tune down her control functions and access to long-term memories, she can perceive a 'different world'; a world without expectations or past memories," Nemeth said. "We can call this intuitive photography."

Kate Schipper et al. How do competitive neurocognitive processes contribute to artistic cognition? – The Andras-effect, Leonardo (2020). DOI: 10.1162/leon_a_02007

I'm also thinking now about how the chemical promiscuity of olfactory receptors makes mindful, environmental odor exploration (paying attention to smells) a great means to exercise your artistic mind.