HOW TO EXPLAIN THE BODY TO A MACHINE

By Helio Santos

This text was created with the help of ChatGPT

What does it mean to have a body? is a long-term generative artificial intelligence project by Santiago Márquez, a proposal that does not seek a conclusive answer but rather awakens numerous questions. In my opinion, this is precisely what art seeks to do: confront us from the moment the image is reflected in our retina. Upon learning about this project, countless questions immediately arose: What does it feel like to have a body? Are we conscious enough to always perceive what is happening in our corporeality? If machines could experience their own corporeality, how would it be, and how would they describe it? Or, as the author himself puts it: How do you explain to a machine what it feels like to have a body?

In this project, the artist dissects, opens, and shows anatomical structures that transcend the physical and raise questions about the current world and our relationship with artificial intelligences. Keeping us in awe, just like in Rembrandt's painting, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp from 1632, where the surgeons attentively observe what is revealed before them, we could well place ourselves in the position of the surgeons or be the machines who are learning from the human experience. But now, dealing with a digital, telepresent body situated in the meta-reality, on the other hand, these images that make up the collection immediately transport us towards those anatomical drawings of the 16th century, where attempts were made to understand what was inside our bodies and are disturbingly beautiful.

Nicolaes Tulp delivering an anatomy lesson.

Rembrandt. Anatomy class Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. 1632.

This collection, which combines hundreds of images of a kind of description, dissection, and speculative science of somas, masses, and connections, is the resulting body of human-machine communication. They are synthetic images that seem to come from the scientific illustration of the future, where our bodies have evolved to the point of no longer being as we know them today: machine-bodies are presented to question what meaning we are giving to our corporealities and intelligences.

Instantly, the powerful images and ideas expressed by Santiago led me to think of Claudia Giannetti's (2001) conference entitled "ELECTRONIC ART: SCIENCE, NETWORKS, AND INTERACTIVITY," where precise reflections are presented on the approach of the network concept and the body. Giannetti establishes similarities between peptides and the psychosomatic network, and cites a change of conception that emerged in the 1980s: scientists discovered a group of molecules called peptides that act as messengers, facilitating the connection between three systems and unifying them into a single network. This discovery identified the psychosomatic network, a complex system interconnected by a network and a dynamic flow of peptides, which integrates all our mental, emotional, and biological activities. This text by Giannetti led me to think of Santiago's project as a visualizer of the machine's attempts to understand what it means to have a body and just as the human body is a network of communication pathways with messengers that distribute information, in the same way, we could think of the body of artificial intelligence, the internet, and possibly tele-informatics systems.

Returning to Giannetti's dissertation (2001), that alludes to an internal system interconnected by a network whose dynamic is driven by peptides, known as the psychosomatic network. This scientific finding has allowed the discovery that peptides are the biochemical expression of emotions, broadening the cognitive phenomenon through an intricate network that integrates all the organism's mental, emotional, and biological activities. Most interestingly, she closes this part of the conference by saying: "The brain can no longer be considered hierarchically as the center, but its parts are 'floating throughout the body'" This undoubtedly connects with Santiago's works, where bodies, systems, and tissues float in latent space and seem to interconnect in a network of bodies, organs, and molecules.

Another reference we cannot overlook is the experience of composer John Cage who entered the anechoic chamber at Harvard University in 1951. The anechoic chamber is a room completely isolated from outside sound, designed to absorb almost all sound and create a silent acoustic environment. Cage entered expecting absolute silence but instead heard two sounds: a constant high-pitched tone and a pulsating hum. Cage realized that these sounds were not from the chamber itself but from his own body: the high-pitched tone was the sound of his nervous system, and the pulsating hum was his blood circulating. It is believed that this fact inspired Cage to develop his work "4'33''", which consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence, but in which the ambient sounds that occur during that time in the room or stage where the piece is performed can be heard.

The body has been one of the most recurrent and fascinating themes in art history, explored in various ways, from its physical representation to its role in society and culture. As a thematic vehicle, it has been used to explore reflections on our existence, our relationship with the world, and others. From the beginnings of art, the body has been one of the central themes, along with others, such as landscape, still life, spirituality, religion, and portraiture. All these thematic vehicles are used to engage in a dialogue about our interactions with the world and our position within it. In Santiago's case, he uses the organic body to confront the machine, something it lacks. He develops a philosophical debate with artificial intelligence and with himself.

Stelarc testing his robotic third hand.

Third Hand de Stelarc (1980-1998).

As art moved from the objectual to the conceptual and temporal in the 20th century, the body became one of the most explored means and ends, giving rise to new artistic practices such as body art, performance, happening, and creative actions. With the accessibility and widespread adoption of electronic and digital technologies, the internet, and computers, artists generated even more questions and reflections on the body and its relationship with the world. Technology became an essential tool for creating artworks that involved interaction, processes, prosthetics, implants, cybernetic devices, and robotic systems, opening new possibilities for body art, and generating new debates about the relationship between technology and science.

One of the artists who has explored this idea of the obsolescence of the body is Stelarc, whose work focuses on using advanced technologies to create prosthetics that expand the capabilities of the human body, and it is controlled by technological and human agents external to the organism itself. Through his artworks, Stelarc questions the idea of the physical integrity of the body, its ability to adapt, the incorporation of devices into it, and the consolidation of the transhuman body. Another example is the piece Metzina by Catalan artist Marcel·lí Antúnez Roca, in which he confronts the viewer with decomposing flesh on an artificial and robotic skeleton. This artwork questions the relationship between the human body and technology, suggesting the possibility of hybridization between the two that could create a new type of being.

A bioinstallation of a robotic and human body in Outras Peles Exhibition, Lisboa, Portugal.

METZINA 2004. Bioinstallation. General view. Outras Peles Exhibition, Lisboa.

Antúnez himself describes this installation as follows:

This installation is initially composed of two systems: one biological and one technological.

The biological system reveals the decomposition process of a sculpture made of beef and pork that represents a human body. The decomposition process involving the usual microbes is accelerated by a troop of insects, zophoba larvae. The figure is sealed inside a hermetically sealed methacrylate cabinet to prevent bad odors in the room. The display case is also ventilated by a system of fans that suck and extract air from the exhibition area. The frame holding the meat is a metal skeleton on which the words of a poem have been welded. The poem by JVFOIX says "Es quan dormo que hi veig clar / Foll d'una dolÁa metzina."(1)

The technological system, composed of a camera and a computer, allows transforming the sequential recording of photos into a movie that shows the process of decomposition and putrefaction. This movie is projected in the exhibition hall.

Metzina was presented at Mapa Poetic from June 8th to 23rd at Sala Metronom in Barcelona.

(1) "When I sleep, I see clearly / Mad with a sweet poison."

Incorporating technology in art has generated new possibilities and debates about the relationship between the human body, the artificial, and technology, opening possibilities for creating works that explore the human condition in the future. Artificial intelligence, the generation of synthetic images have become means to reflect on the very definition of what it means to be human in the digital age. To what extent is fiction, art, fantasy, and speculation in human cultural production serving to train machines?, giving us results, predictions, and content that distance absolute certainties and are fascinating.

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