!brute_force
2022
!bruteforce is a research platform interrogating forms of governance instituted by AI through structured models of reality. Established in 2019, the project stemmed from the premise that humans and nonhumans are no longer embedded in a dualist frame, but levelled within the global infrastructure of market economy and techno-capitalist commodification of life. The project has been composed of the following works: !bruteforce: Feeding the Algorithm (2020) by Maja Smrekar and !brute_force: Soft Resilience (2022) by Maja Smrekar and Jonas Jørgensen.
As a central set up, the installation takes the form of a dystopian microcosm structured around a 3 dimensional grid, designed to resemble an abstracted serotonin molecule - a neurotransmitter influenced by the human parallel evolution with dogs, addressed in Smrekar’s previous work.
Since serotonin regulates both species metabolic functions, these are measured as physiological data captured and classified by AI in order to generate a map for the artist, while pushing and rearranging tiles in numerous iterations amid climbing the grid with her dog companion.
The captured data serves as input for the algorithm to learn how to advise the artist to invest just enough bodily force to align my heartbeat with the dog’s.
The physiology and AI data could be openly observed in real-time by the public, while stored in the !brute_force cloud and transmitted in parallel to the Apple Cloud as a disruption of commercial circuits of human health statistics.
In order to challenge the objective affirmation of AI, Smrekar invited Jonas as collaborator in 2021, to reembody gathered performance data by means of robotics. They developed a procedural content generation course to transform the data into structural morphologies of a number of soft robots embedded in the installation.
An evolutionary algorithm was set up to process continuously updated data of the !brute_force cloud to push the robots into infinity, and bring the data to life through reliance on a materialist ontology, and thus posing the final question: Could forms of ontological and epistemological liberation from models of hierarchical relations, be articulated from algorithms, by exceeding determination?
Credits
Installation design: Maja Smrekar (SI)
Construction design: Miloš Vujković (RS/DE)
Architecture: Aljaž Rudolf (SI)
Animation design: Dongwook Jang (KR/NL)
Neural network model concept: Alen Balja (SI), Maja Smrekar (SI)
Neural Network architecture and programming: Alen Balja (SI), Miran Lončarič (SI), Naveen Agula (IN)
Interface concept: Alen Balja (SI), Maja Smrekar (SI)
Interface and animation design: Dongwook Jang (K / NL)
Dog handlers and training concept: Mia Zahariaš (SI), Tina Šolar (SI)
Dogs: Boogie (SI), Ada (SI), George (SI)
Soft robotics concept: Jonas Jørgensen (DK), Maja Smrekar (SI)
Soft robotics design: Jonas Jørgensen (DK), Mads Bering Christiansen (DK)
Soft robotics parts fabrication: Mads Bering Christiansen (DK)
Soft robotics microcontroller programming: Daniel Mauricio Fernandez Gonzalez (CO/ES), Jonas Jørgensen (DK)
Algorithm programming: Daniel Mauricio Fernandez Gonzalez (CO/ES)
Soft robotics mechanical parts design and fabrication: Cao Danh Do (DK)
Soft robotics electronics: Jeppe Rahbæk Mosgaard (DK)
Tile design and production: Miloš Vujković (RS/DE)
Support received from
!brute_force: Feeding the Algorithm (2019 - 2020) was executed by Maja Smrekar as a
performance between the human, dog and AI algorithm.
Produced by Quo Artis Foundation (ES)
Co-produced by Kapelica Gallery/Kersnikova Institute (SI), The Culture Yard/CLICK Festival
(DK).
The project was part of the European ARTificial Intelligence Lab and was supported by
the Creative Europe Program of the European Union
Supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia (SI), Municipality of Ljubljana –
Department for Culture (SI), Danish Art Council (DK)
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