My Story of Resilience

The more I learn in life, the more I realise that cross-disciplinary working is the way forward. This is something I hold close to my own heart and is something that I’ve taken from Hasan’s lectures so far.

I’ve realised how art is used as vehicle for social change, whether thats intentionally or unintentionally. Fictional stories about robots in the future, influence the future. Never underestimate the power of storytelling and how the stories that are told today, influence tomorrow.

The Few Who Didn’t Give Up – Hasan’s Lecture

Hasan’s lecture today The Few Who Didn’t Give Up explored many interesting questions – can machines think? What does it mean to think?

His lecture also focussed on the incredible English Mathematician and Computer Scientist – Alan Turing, who saved thousands of lives during World War II by cracking the German Enigma code, whilst creating the formalisation of the algorithm and computation, with the Turing Machine. He created the Turing Test, which explored the question – can machines tell the difference between what is created by a human and a machine?

Hasan went on to discuss how data within technology is designed around the concept of neural networks, as seen in the brain (metaphorically).

One of the key points that stood out to me today was that many Innovators are forgotten or hidden, as it is the technology that they invented, that is remembered the most. Lets not forget the people who made it all happen in the first place.

Today’s Exercise

Today we brought a personal story of resilience with us and a self portrait, which we weaved together in groups of three using Artbreeder.com. I worked with Upasana and Alistair for this exericise.

My personal story was about the many challenges I faced, during my first international residency in South Korea in 2019.

My story of resilience started with how I was in a foreign country where I couldn’t speak my native language to communicate with the Studio Managers during my residency. At the same time, I designed a very technical piece of engineering, let alone an artwork, of which I had never realised before. There were elements of science, engineering, mathematics and technology in this piece, including a water-tight tank full of oil and a multichannel bubble system using programmable electronics.

The focus on my story was the way I realised that I need a team of people to help me realise my works and that I can’t always do it alone. I’m a very independent person, so I found this hard to accept. Bringing in other technical people, also means that they bring new knowledge, skills and opportunities to the table, which can only make things better. Which it did! I employed a Creative Technologist and a Fabricator to help me realise my most ambitious artwork to date – Inner Horizons, despite any language and cultural barriers.

I decided to create a self portrait that reflected my creative journey where I began to technically upskill and used an Avatar-like blue face to represent how my new knowledge of the technical, made my creativity possible.