The Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève is pleased to welcome the launch of the digital publication Jouer à être humain., result of a collaboration between duo of artists Boisseau & Westermeyer, and philosopher David Zerbib, on Thursday September 23 from 6.30pm.

On this occasion, Sylvie Boisseau and Frank Westermeyer present two of their films at the Cinema Dynamo:

Der Freie Mensch – mit KI (L’homme libre – avec IA)
4K video, 7 min 43
2019

by Sylvie Boisseau and Frank Westermeyer

“The human being asks a question, and the machine provides the response”. This was the mechanism that Boisseau & Westermeyer used to confront ƒ, their main character. What happens when the informational content is optimised and becomes accessible on a permanent, unlimited basis? Does the algorithm know ƒ better than ƒ himself?  Can ƒ’s personality still be detected? Is his perspective on himself still his own, or has it become that of the algorithm? Are his aspirations his own, or has he internalised the algorithm? The questions that l’Homme Libre – avec IA raise seem to unfold ad infinitum, but what happens when every uncertainty is resolved?

ƒ zwischen den Stufen des Organischen (ƒ in between the Levels of Organic Life)
4K video, 20 min 40
2021

by Sylvie Boisseau and Frank Westermeyer

Ƒ is tiring of the possibilities that his hypersmart car offers him. He no longer wants to use its technological improvements to transcend the limits of his own body. Can he experience himself in a new way by embodying every stage of organic life, both animal and plant? Inspired by this line of inquiry, he ultimately decides to view the world first from the standpoint of a quadruped, and then, from the immobile position of a plant.
Credits: text by David Zerbib : L’humain entre chien, robot et nénuphar. Anthropologie philosophique et esthétique du cas ƒ.

More information about the publication:

Jouer à être humain.
Entre IA, vie animale et végétale : une expérimentation artistique et philosophique.
(Playing at Being Huma. Between AI, animal and plant life: an artistic and philosophical experiment)

This publication takes the form of a multimedia e-book produced as part of the research project Plessner transposed: a “decentered” actor between philosophical anthropology and video, which was financed by the research fund of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland, or HES-SO.

This research project originated with the combination of two main elements: an artistic method that made use of an experimental agent, ƒ, who draws attention to—and activates—situations, and a rereading of the works of philosopher Helmuth Plessner (1892-1985), who had proposed a definition of human beings based on their biological and spatial qualities. Between video and philosophy, images of thought are revealed, illuminated by the question: amidst our contemporary crisis of anthropocentrism, how can we redefine humanity’s relationship to technology and to life itself?