Forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden which God commands mankind not to eat. In the biblical narrative, Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and are exiled from Eden.






This body of work uses computer generated photographs to challenge the notion of autonomous thought within the machines of the future.

One may believe that autonomous thought exists within OpenAI’s machine learning algorithm GP-2. This A.I. has been tasked and succeed in writing an entire new play. While this may seem like a success for the free thinking machines the reality requires a bit more inspection. To create this ‘new’ play the A.I. was required to scan and analyse millions of other dramatic works in order to produce it’s one original. What looked like free creative autonomous thought is merely a copy of human creativity. Within each example of an A.I. exhibiting ,what seems to be, true creativity there is always the caveat of the corpus of content it first needed to gather and train on to complete the feat. The machine is only able to act upon the information it is provided with, by the human/society who made it.

To demonstrate this often blurred line between free action and human coding within the machine, I examined the obscure notion of robot breath. We can see robot vision in self driving cars, we can feel robot touch while riding an escalator or wearing haptic feedback technology, but robot breath still alludes us? It seems that the breath is the last refuge for the human that the machine cannot replicate. 

Through the lens of robot breath the images of this project flip the reality of autonomous action back and fourth between the miraculous and the coincidental. 




Encounters with Robot Breath: Leisure

Polariser is a video piece exploring the invisible and visible. I used two polarising filters salvaged from old computer screens. Through the manipulation of these of the filters a window into a different perspective of reality is revealed. A perspective that was originally invisible to the human eye. Polarising filters reveal hidden stresses and tears in plastic that would normally be invisible to the human eye. This work explores how the human senses can be expanded through the poetic use of scientific tools and processes.

This piece was made during the COVID-19 lockdown, when I had no access to studio space. I tore apart two old computers to get this effect to work. This work explores found materials in a sort of transformative way. The materials I used for this was a plastic bag and two old computers. This test turned out to be quite beautiful in its own right and has inspired subsequent artworks for me.

Polariser

“The Cougar 20-H is a robot with the ability to hear breath through walls. With funding from the U.S. military the robot is equipped witha panel of ultra-wideband radio frequency sensors, remote control functionality, and integrated cameras for day and night time visibility.

The robot that is so sensitive it can not only detect motion through walls but, to ensure no one goes unnoticed, it can also detect the breathing of a stationary person.”

This body of work uses computer generated photographs to challenge the notion of autonomous thought within the machines of the future.

One may believe that autonomous thought exists within OpenAI’s machine learning algorithm GP-2. This A.I. has been tasked and succeed in writing an entire new play. While this may seem like a success for the free thinking machines the reality requires a bit more inspection. To create this ‘new’ play the A.I. was required to scan and analyse millions of other dramatic works in order to produce it’s one original. What looked like free creative autonomous thought is merely a copy of human creativity. Within each example of an A.I. exhibiting ,what seems to be, true creativity there is always the caveat of the corpus of content it first needed to gather and train on to complete the feat. The machine is only able to act upon the information it is provided with, by the human/society who made it.

To demonstrate this often blurred line between free action and human coding within the machine, I examined the obscure notion of robot breath. We can see robot vision in self driving cars, we can feel robot touch while riding an escalator or wearing haptic feedback technology, but robot breath still alludes us? It seems that the breath is the last refuge for the human that the machine cannot replicate. 

Through the lens of robot breath the images of this project flip the reality of autonomous action back and fourth between the miraculous and the coincidental. 


Encounters with Robot Breath: Military

The pilgrims have come from an alternate reality, a reality where their society is ruled by techno-animistic virtues.


Techno-Animism (the encompassment of machine into religion).


Pilgrimage

Polariser II is a sculpture exploring the invisible and visible. I used two polarising filters salvaged from old computer screens. Through the rotation of one of the filters a window into a different perspective of reality is revealed. A perspective that was originally invisible to the human eye. An iridescent shard slides between displays of vibrant colours and transparency. This work explores how the human senses can be expanded through the poetic  use of scientific tools and processes.

Polariser II

Cultural importance: It has been a Western tradition for someone to blow out a dandelion seedhead and think of a wish wanted to come true. 



This body of work uses computer generated photographs to challenge the notion of autonomous thought within the machines of the future.

One may believe that autonomous thought exists within OpenAI’s machine learning algorithm GP-2. This A.I. has been tasked and succeed in writing an entire new play. While this may seem like a success for the free thinking machines the reality requires a bit more inspection. To create this ‘new’ play the A.I. was required to scan and analyse millions of other dramatic works in order to produce it’s one original. What looked like free creative autonomous thought is merely a copy of human creativity. Within each example of an A.I. exhibiting ,what seems to be, true creativity there is always the caveat of the corpus of content it first needed to gather and train on to complete the feat. The machine is only able to act upon the information it is provided with, by the human/society who made it.

To demonstrate this often blurred line between free action and human coding within the machine, I examined the obscure notion of robot breath. We can see robot vision in self driving cars, we can feel robot touch while riding an escalator or wearing haptic feedback technology, but robot breath still alludes us? It seems that the breath is the last refuge for the human that the machine cannot replicate. 

Through the lens of robot breath the images of this project flip the reality of autonomous action back and fourth between the miraculous and the coincidental. 


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Rory Malone

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