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- Convenor:
-
Michelangelo Paganopoulos
(Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam)
Send message to Convenor
- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 8 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel focuses on the creation of artificial "metaverses" as part of the development of artificial-human relational interactions that show the emergence of a new ontological meta-human self-consciousness. What role(s) can Anthropology play as an active agent of change towards the New Age?
Long Abstract:
In popular consciousness, 1969 marked the completion of the 2,150 years astrological cycle and transition from the Age of Capricorn to the Age of Aquarius, as part of the 25,772 years natural gyroscopic precession of Earth's axis. It also marked the year when the Apollo 11 mission stepped foot on the Moon, broadcasted live on TV sets across the world. A year later, Gene Youngblood published his famous book on "expanded cinema," which aimed to opening the "horizons beyond the point of infinity" moving Humanity's "oceanic consciousness" towards a "cosmic consciousness." Since that time, media performance technologies have made huge leaps in modes and means of audio-visual representation, introducing interactive live technologies, cyber environments, virtual and augmented realities, establishing virtual utopian and/or dystopian Other Worlds in which humans co-exist via their Avatar personalities, developing primary artificial and human interactions via board games, and even developing spiritual interactions between humans and AI. This panel calls for papers focusing on the rapid development of "metaverses" as interactive fields and/or performances, as a means of mapping the emergence of a new universal meta-human consciousness, to reflect upon the role Anthropology can play as an active agent of change.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 8 June, 2022, -Michelangelo Paganopoulos (Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam)
Paper short abstract:
This introductory overview sketches the evolution of modes of representation and fields, from ritual and performance towards modern sacred performances, and via Youngblood's concept of "expanded cinema" towards the emergence "metaverse" environments and future potentiality of terraforming planets.
Paper long abstract:
This introductory paper to the panel offers a brief overview of the evolution of modes of representation, beginning with classic anthropological studies in ritual and performance (Van Gennep, Victor Turner, Bruce Kapferer) towards modern sacred performances (Maya Deren's ritualistic cinema and/or Grotowski's "poor theatre") and via Youngblood's concept of "expanded cinema" and interactive cinema in the 1970s, towards the emergence of three popular "metaverse" games: Roblox, Fortnight, and Minecraft. The paper theoretically draws on three overlapping dialectics that constitute the evolution of emerging spaces from rituals to "meta-universes": the convergence and enlargement of space and engagement of social bodies via intermedial technologies; the ontological dialectics between the potential (imaginative) and actual (material) synthesis of social presence (Avatars); and the dialectics played between "technology-vs-content" synthesis of Live performances, focusing on how embodied technology transgresses beyond the physical limits of the senses and the stage. The paper argues that these three complementary arenas simultaneously play their part in synthesizing the rapidly evolving cyber field via the material processes that accumulate towards the "machinization" (or "dehumanization") of human ontology and "humanization" of the machine. In the visionary spirit of science fiction, the paper reflects upon the potentiality of an artificial intelligent living semi-organic space of which human activity is an integral part in its constitution (a meta-Anthropocene), from ritual and theatre to online games and towards the future colonization of space and terraforming of new planetary environments, as a means of transforming the Human Consciousness and ways of interaction, perception and existence in an ontologically representational manner.
Avital Meshi (UC Davis)
Paper short abstract:
The New Vitruvian is a performance that examines body-doubles created by AI technology. A performer spends time with a recognition algorithm, allowing it to analyze her body. Mostly, it recognizes her as a ‘Person’, but there are moments in which she is detected as something other-than-human.
Paper long abstract:
The superimposed man inscribed within a circle and a square in Leonardo's 'Vitruvian Man' is meant to represent the ideal person's measurements, a creature who is a microcosm of the grander spheres and its proportions can be relied upon for the definition of the universe. Today humans are superimposed by their digital doubles and inscribed within bounding boxes. What do these measurements do? And how do they define the universe? Our doppelgangers are formed from metadata that accumulates within our interactions with digital media. What is the relationship between our bodies and these digital doubles? Do they mirror our attributes? Do they enable us the freedom to reconsider ourselves and transform? Or maybe they are just a systematic error within the logic of the code? The New Vitruvian is an art performance that examines the potential of identity transformation through the lens of AI technology. The performer spends time in front of an AI recognition algorithm, consenting for it to detect and analyze her body. Most of the time, the algorithm recognizes her as a human being, a 'Person', but there are flickering moments in which she is detected as something other-than-human. These alternative classifications include various animals and objects which are suddenly recognized while the performer moves around. The paper will discuss the implications of misrepresentations by AI algorithms and speculate a future in which this technology composes digital avatars for the entire population.
The paper is based on 'The New Vitruvian' performance: http://www.avitalmeshi.com/the-new-vitruvian-2022.html
Leo Ruickbie (University of Northampton)
Paper short abstract:
Technology can already bring back the appearance of the dead, but as machine learning and quantum computing push the boundaries of the possible, will Web 3.0 create Heaven 2.0? This paper will explore the emerging technologies of resurrection and their implications for human and non-human society.
Paper long abstract:
Even after death, our digital selves continue – in email accounts, in social media profiles, in blogs and websites – virtual ‘ghosts of place’ (Bell, 1997; recently documented by Pozzi, 2021). The machine world is already haunted. However, these shadows of our digital lives are unintended consequences of living in the modern world, what happens when they become intentional, what happens when technology deliberately tries to bring the dead back to life, or even invent an afterlife? What happens when the metaphor of Derridean ‘hauntology’ becomes literal?
Deceased singers Freddie Mercury and Tupac Shakur have appeared on stage to perform once more, and the late Carrie Fisher has been re-assembled out of unused footage and CGI for The Rise of Skywalker. Microsoft has already patented software that can bring the dead back as chatbots. Technology is creating new Frankenstein’s monsters, this time made from memories, recordings and digital manipulations to be given the spark of (after)life by AI.
The digital return of the dead has begun, unregulated by legal frameworks and motivated by the interests of consumer capitalism, prioritising entertainment over spirituality. But how will it develop? Could a religious leader be brought back in a virtual Second Coming? What are the messianic implications of a digital Resurrection? Will we see a heavenly metaverse develop complete with angels, powers and dominions – a Web 3.0 version of Heaven 2.0? How will religion and spirituality adapt to the possibilities of AI? And what will it mean for the AI entities themselves?