BORGY & BES
Aus Daimon
Thomas Feuerstein, BORGY & BES, 2018. Neural network installation, surgery lamps, dimensions variable, commissioned by LABORATORIA Art & Science Foundation. exhibition view: Daemons in the Machine, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow 2018
Two antic surgery lamps - Borgy (from Cyborg) and Bes (from “Demons” by Dostoevsky) move, talk, whisper, argue with each other. They discuss modern news and problems they learn about in real-time mode on the Internet in the language of F.M. Dostoevsky. The verbal behavior of BORGY & BES is governed by special-trained artificial neural network and synthesized voices. Like living creatures, they have needs in communication, rest, safety, love. BORGY & BES react emotionally at perceived information: they shiver from traumatic news and avoid curious visitors. The borders between artificial intelligence and humanity vanish: these hybrid creatures are possessed by daemons of network voices and program protocols and foreshow the epoch of dialogue with artificial intelligence.
project team: LABORATORIA Art & Science Foundation: Daria Parkhomenko (curator), Natalia Zhukova, Maria Zolotova, Ekaterina Savina (coordination) Neural Networks and Deep Learning (iPavlov, MIPT): Mikhail Butrsev, Head of MIPT’s Neural Networks and Deep Learning Lab, Head of iPavlov project (team leader), Ivan Skorohodov (text stylisation), Denis Smirnov (voice synthesis) Robotic engineering (NRC “Kurchatov Institute”): Valery Karpov, Head of NRC “Kurchatov Institute”’s Robotic engineering Lab (team leader), Maksim Rovbo (software development), Valery Karpov, Ivan Abaimov (mechatronics) Back-end programming (Moscow Tech Production): Anna Egorova, Sergey Feduschenko