Upcycled Cyborgs Populate Schnack and Cosburn’s ‘Wired’

For a moment, Erik Schnack’s cyborgs are metal ghosts floating effortlessly in the air. Glowing, hovering, seemingly sentient and observing beings as influenced by fantasy as they are by science fiction.

On display in the PC Centre building as ‘Wired’, a multi-media art installation comprising a family of handcrafted suspended sculptures that respond to the viewer via a series of strategically placed sensors, the cyborgs spring from the imagination of Schnack with sound and computer engineering by Madryn Cosburn.

The technophobe to Cosburn’s technophile, Schnack bought his first cell phone in 2007 and still does not have a television. Cosburn, on the other hand, has always been fascinated with mechanical and electronic systems though shies away from integrating his personal life with the internet.

“’Wired’ represents our own unease around the paradoxical relationship between technological advancement and humankind by dealing specifically with aspects of society’s confusion and anxiety around the notion of the cyborg,” says Schnack who used a chain-mail technique to construct the sculptures’ protective armour, the surface pattern of which resembles andamento mosaic.

Inspired in part by cyberpunk and steampunk aesthetics and created through the upcycling of discarded waste materials, the sculptures defy the apocalyptic cyborg stereotype and speak of both sustainability and the continued significance of handcraft.

“For me handcraft has a special innocence,” says Schnack whose family background comprises chain-mail artisans.

“It is hard to associate bad intentions with handcraft. It is also difficult to detect an opinion or a stance in handcraft, it is non-authoritarian. ‘Wired’ represents how the interconnection between two opposing worldviews – traditional craft and new technology – can create positive and mutually beneficial outcomes.”

Simultaneously modern and retro, born of both fear and inquiry, once the sculptures are suspended and lit, the cyborgs cast a latticed light mimicking the simulated digital world the creative duo believe can be beneficial or ominous with regard to mankind’s ever growing dependence and integration with technologies such as the internet.

An astute use of technology to spark discussion about the abuse, natural progression and effects of these advances, the sculptures feature embedded computers and controllers connected to sensors which give the sculptures an awareness of their environment and can thus respond to stimuli in various ways.

“The artificial intelligence embedded in the final cyborg, like an organic intelligence, is growing every day as it processes stimuli,” says Cosburn. “The original software model was built out of freely available open source algorithms that have been ‘glued’ together with software. This is a fork of an ongoing project that was started almost two decades ago.”

The result is a cyborg that has its own blog.

“It generates text based on a corpus of text that it has analysed,” says Cosburn. “This is a similar technique to what is used by more and more news websites and click-bait generators. I believe that a great deal of what people are accepting as truth is in fact generated by artificial intelligence (AI) similar to the one used by our cyborg.”

Describing technology as a tool, not necessarily a lifestyle, Cosburn believes the danger of rapid and unchecked advances in technology is in the using.

“The biggest danger with technology is if it is used irresponsibly. It is a bit like the saying that guns don’t kill people, people do,” he says.

“If used appropriately, technology can really make a difference to people and this can already be seen in a wide range of fields ranging from agriculture to medicine. If used inappropriately, the effects can range from insignificant to lethal.”

The latter including instances in which robotic technology begins to replace humans.

“What happens if an AI is embedded into a robotic system? What happens if it becomes totally autonomous? What will happen if the AI decides that humans are dispensable?” says Cosburn who cites work by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke and Philip K Dick as having left a permanent impression.

“The exhibition can only be a catalyst and food for thought. Interpretation is left to the observer.”

A space in which to consider a post- or trans-human future, a distant future in which technology has evolved to such an extent that cyborgs are commonplace and exist as equals, servants or dominate the human race entirely, ‘Wired’ arrests in its perceived neutrality.

The impression and end of the technological story is all yours. All unnamed, observing as they are observed and featuring forms more fantastic than typically android or robotic, whether the cyborgs present as friend or foe is decided in the mind of the observer drawing on their own relationship with technology.

“Being cyborg is not the life of an individual,” says the cyborg writing on its blog after a more sobering post on 24 April.

“A follower of the flower, so do the wise move through the master, walk with the master, become the master.”

‘Wired’ is curated by StArt Art Gallery with the support of the Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre and the National Arts Council and will be on display at the PC Centre building, 79 Hosea Kutako Drive, until 4 May. Viewing hours are 14h00 to 17h00. Google ‘totallywiredcyborg’ to read the cyborg’s blog.

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