So, how does artificial intelligence look at flowers and trees?

"NOWNESS Round Table"

In this roundtable, we chatted with the artists

Artificial intelligence, the relationship between humans and nature

Will a robot dream of an electronic sheep one day?

It's been six years since Alpha Go defeated Ke Jie, and five years have passed since the first robot, Sophia, gained Citizenship of Saudi Arabia, and in the years of AI silence, we don't know how far they have come, and it seems that scenes in video works such as "Real Humans" and "Westworld" are about to become a reality in front of us.

Marshmallow Laser Feast's "In the Eyes of the Animal" explores the ecological environment from the perspective of animals through VR glasses

Inspired by this, this issue takes "Second Nature" as the theme, and in the modern society where technology is widespread, we try to look at the relationship between human beings and nature from the perspective of artists. Through the lens of technology and artificial intelligence, we will see what kind of nature, this issue of the roundtable we invited several creators from different fields to express their opinions.

NOWNESS

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In Marxist epistemology, natural objects are divided into two categories, the naturally existing natural objects are the first nature, and the humanized natural objects formed by human production practice activities are the second nature. How do you understand the first nature and the second nature? How can human beings coexist with nature in the age of technology?

Chen Qifan

Many environments that seem to be the first nature are actually the second nature. The Enlightenment and the Renaissance reconfirmed the status of man, and human subjectivity was revealed, but this process deliberately degraded the position of the object. Therefore, others (including the environment) have always been used as exploitable objects. This leads the Earth to the brink of collapse.

Feng Zhixuan

I don't quite subscribe to the theory of the first nature and the second nature. This perception is based on the automatic extension of the second nature, not the first. But human beings are the products of the first nature.

Feng Zhixuan's A Stylish Interpretation of Ozymandias. The Ossimandis from the English poet Shelley is now a distinguished symbol enshrined at the gates of the upscale community in order to show its taste. From taste to style, the reverse interpretation of the joke is completed.

Liu Jiayu

Different creators open the world and perceive the world in different ways, the second nature as I understand it represents a part of human intervention and programming, and the first nature is the natural program that the universe gives to natural circulation and the growth of all things.

How do you handle natural material in your creations?

In the field of literature, language is a metaphor, there is no way to directly present the thing to be referred to, can only be expressed with an approximation or alternative symbol to symbolize. But it is precisely in this way that literature has many possibilities. One of the most important is to convey the feelings, let yourself write together with nature, and let the written works represent the feelings and states of time and space at that time. I will take notes anytime, anywhere, and many materials are not known to be useful in recording moments, but when I accumulate enough materials, I will find that they will organically grow a structure on their own, and they will be related to each other.

Christian Mio Loclair

In my work ZECHE, we borrowed natural landscapes such as forests and streams, built nature in digital time and space, and finally watched through online channels. In contrast to the rapid and dense information reception of the real world, we try to build a relatively slow, but high-quality, poetic, natural virtual space in the virtual world.

Christian Mio Loclair's ZECHE. In ZECHE, the artwork in the jungle depicts a clear dystopian landscape that depicts an abstract, human-free world as if governed by nature.

My creative process is like an indigenous people picking up garbage by the sea to make things. I make sculpture because I only believe in the existence of matter, for me all material resources are materials, are nature. I process these materials first, and I continue to create this work every other time, months or years. Then as a part of nature, the process of creation is also "nature" itself, and my work becomes nature. Therefore, I will use some materials that are so frequent that they are within reach and are accustomed to being "natural". Although some people think that my use of foam materials or resin plastics to create will be polluting to the environment, but from the perspective of the earth, these things are too small. Even some materials that are never degradable, it will become another natural form.

Feng Zhixuan's Osimantis, 2021.

In the past ten years of creation, most of my creative themes, concepts, sources of inspiration, and the beginning of the narrative are related to nature. In each of these works, I deduce the first nature as realistically as possible. In fact, nature cannot be twind or surpassed, and every moment of it is naturally rendered in real time in the flow of the universe, and we may never be able to obtain this set of calculation formulas.

Liu Jiayu's three-dimensional projection artwork "In the Flow". Karst landforms were originally washed away by sedimentation of flow-to-rocks, but with the help of cutting-edge technology, the flow was restored to the surface of the body. With the help of technological segments, "CounterCurrent On" tries to superimpose virtual and reality, history and future in the field.

Ersin Han Ersin

Our creative inspiration often comes from nature itself and our understanding of natural phenomena. Through a series of immersive installations, our work has always encouraged the audience to explore the natural ecology. At the same time, we hope to emphasize the importance of ecological protection and endangered ecosystems on the planet by demonstrating the interconnectedness of humans and the natural world.

We LIVE IN AN OCEAN OF AIR from Marshmallow Laser Feast. The work is a multi-sensory immersive installation that showcases the wonderful rhythm of life on Earth, intended to show the invisible but essential bonds that connect animals and plants, humans and the natural world.

Technology not only embodies a different aspect of nature, but also asks some thought-provoking questions. Through exquisite imagery, we hope to create an emotional moment that encourages people to become more involved in nature. For example, if you look at the internal system under the bark of a tree through VR glasses, you will find that its breathing pattern is just like that of humans. Using technology to create, combined with an immersive environment indoors, we can show nature that is invisible to the naked eye.

Some people think that there is a certain poetry in your work, what do you think of this evaluation?

Feng Zhixuan

Everything in my work is equal, and all the material has a very rich background and story behind it. For example, the pearl used in "Parallel Spirit Song", the figure of pearl can be seen in the progress of all civilizations. And I chose mass-produced artificial pearls, somewhere between artificial and natural, a product of nature and a product of commerce. When an object itself has a long history, it also comes with this poetry.

Feng Zhixuan's solo exhibition "Parallel Spirit Song" exhibits the work "Plankton Icon". "Floating Idol" displays a fossilized body made of urban texture materials (including septic tanks, gatekeeper lions, building materials and metal chains) in the form of a combination of suspensions.

There is poetry in nature, and we have borrowed it only temporarily. Over time, our ability to collaborate with scientists and scientific knowledge increases, enabling us to transform our work into a more nuanced experience. I think another reason involved is the seriousness of the climate problem and the urgency of what we want to explore, so we hope that these contents can be fully reflected in the work.

Marshmallow Laser Feast's Fantastic Fungi.

Now that more and more creatives are starting to use AI to create, do you believe that one day creators will be replaced by AI?

In 2017, I co-wrote a novel with AI, "Out of Mind", and now AI is still an extension of human creativity. But when will AI be able to act as an independent individual and still be able to say that it is an artist? I think it's still far away. If it has subjectivity, how to define subjectivity? Humans are a very self-centered species, and it is difficult to recognize other creatures that share the same subjective status. But it is possible that in another civilization that was developed entirely from machines, such machines, or AI artists, exist.

NFT art platform TRLab, together with Chen Andifan and Kai-Fu Lee, launched a series of new NFT works around their new book AI 2041: Foreseeing 10 New Worlds for the Future. QU4NTUM is part of the AI 2041 series.

If it is brainstorming and expanding the moodboard in the brain, then AI is definitely much faster and more powerful than we are. But in fact, I think AI is still difficult to replace humans. Creation is not a black-and-white answer, there are many gray areas. Human beings have many different types of creativity, and they can get creative inspiration from various people and things. But for us, what we may need to ask ourselves is – if machines can also get inspiration, then what else can humans create?

Christian Mio Loclair's HELIN. In this work, the artist makes the artificial intelligence absorb a large amount of art history knowledge and images, and creates a new plaster sculpture through programming.

Creation is actually a very complex community or unity. It must be related to the physical, social, natural environment and communication between people around us. The creator absorbs all these experiences before he can produce an emotional expression of himself. However, there is currently no process of experience between AI and AI, so it will not replace human artistic creation itself.

Liu Jiayu's "The Riverside" Starting from the individual identity, the work presents the splicing of two rivers and the potential narrative behind them through the extraction of virtual images created by real-time data sources, trying to capture the "holes" in the context of new media.

Nowadays, more and more creators are choosing to use artificial intelligence for artistic creation, and many new possibilities have been added. But in my opinion, artificial intelligence is still difficult to replace human artists. The way art is created and expressed is always renewed. Whether it is directly through data and programming programs to create, or combined with the artist's concept and artificial intelligence approach, these two ways can continue to enrich the imagination of creators and promote the development of artistic creation.

Now that NFTs are on fire in the art world, some creators are enthusiastically reacting to this new medium, and some are noncommittal about it. What do you think of NFTs?

When something is developing, it is difficult to judge its value and develop the future. The best way is to grow with it. In the first two years, I created the science fiction novel "AI Future Forward" with Kai-Fu Lee, inviting 8 artists to visualize the stories in it and transform them into the form of NFTs, and also opened the exhibition with these works of art.

NFT art platform TRLab, together with Chen Andifan and Kai-Fu Lee, launched a series of new NFT works around their new book AI 2041: Foreseeing 10 New Worlds for the Future. Brendan Dawes，《Ultimate Services For Your Happiness》，MP4。

Philosophically, I'm interested in this medium. This completely rewrites the whole game. Creations left on the Internet will never disappear again. I think that NFTs themselves are philosophical ideas that can be discussed. When I find an art form that expresses my understanding of NFTs, I create NFTs.

I don't want my past works to be NFTs because they didn't exist for that very purpose. In my understanding, the work of NFTs is not "becoming", it needs to be based on the narrative chain and logic of NFTs to create. In the future, I am also willing to try and practice some works created for it.

Liu Jiayu's work "Shadow of the Moon". This piece of terrain is lapping at the mysterious blue waters, evoking reflections on Earth's marine environment.

We have always been cautious about blockchain technology, while also constantly researching and trying to understand the best uses of this technology. In contrast, NFT is just the tip of the iceberg, but it is a remarkable thing as a platform or a form of digital art certification. The barriers between collectors, art lovers, and creators can disappear entirely. At the same time, artists can also make a living from this new economic model.

Let's talk

What do you envision of a future in which humans and nature coexist?

Written by Chichi Chen

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As a paper version of NOWNESS's multicultural content, the spring 2022 issue of NOWNESS PAPER, with the title of Second Nature's "Poetry and Nature", launched a dialogue with creators in different fields such as Song Jia, Jia Zhangke, and Renke. This new issue of NOWNESS PAPER is published in tandem with Weekend Pictorial, so stay tuned.

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