NxN

Emotions are cognitive processes which set us apart from machines and algorithms. The technological world surrounding us today seems to be deprived of them. Artificial intelligence, increasingly more perfect and precise, will probably transform into an independent being at some future stage. Will this being be able to read emotions? Will it understand them? Will it be able to correctly interpret them at some point? How will this ability impact its coexistence with humans? There are many questions and question marks to which answers can only be found in future.
The idea of the cycle NxN is based on the use of an AI algorithm to interpret a text and translate it into images constituting symbolic representations of the emotions the author aimed to convey in the description of his childhood memories. The images obtained as a result of the analysis of the mentioned text constitute a basis of the created artworks in the form of a 3D net – a symbol of the algorithmic order and the digital zero-one reality. The combination of the memories and the images is a surprising clash of the human and digital universes.

 

My sincere thanks to the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence for permission to use the A.I. algorithm.

„NxN” individual exhibition in FF Gallery / Łódź, Poland 2021

Memories from childhood used to create images:

 

We always spent summer holidays at the seaside. I can remember, when, bathing in those rough sea waters, my dad catapulted me with such a great force that I jumped into the oncoming wave like a dolphin. It was a moment of wonderful joy and childlike spontaneity.

A playground, a night, crickets, her and her two braids – we are sitting on swings; the first kiss – I was 7 years old, perhaps? I can’t tell why I remember her golden earrings in the shape of flat drops made of coiled threads so well.

The smell of wood, the space, a mountain range, a mysterious dark barn. Moments of childhood spent in the mountains, freedom – this all-pervading smell of wood. The time when every moment seemed to be magical and intriguingly mystifying.

My mum (mother) and dad (father), smiling, always full of warmth. That space always safe and full of colour.

The loneliness of childhood which I experienced most in my room.

From my early childhood, my mum, a dentist, took care of my teeth to excess, a result of which was my great fear. In consequence, the first time I sat in a dental chair of my own free will was only when I was 14. I needed a lot of time to overcome that trauma.

I, fighting evil, a hero, a fearless warrior, I, a child perpetually engulfed by his imagination.

The aquarium was the other world I inhabited. Every day, on my way to school, I visited the pet store thinking what I could change about it, how to make it still more beautiful.

A dark room with a desk illuminated by a small lamp. My father working scientifically all night long, surrounded by papers, strange calculations and calculators. A mystical, surprising, incomprehensible and a very intriguing space for a small boy.

I loved falling asleep listening to fairy tales played from vinyl records. I remember the Snow Queen and Robinson Crusoe best.

„NxN” individual exhibition in FF Gallery / Łódź, Poland 2021 / Lightbox 57×57 cm.

“The digital photography constituting the other part of Borys Makary’s exhibition / installation, intentionally gives up mimetism and, what’s more, creates categories close to the surrealist image in its version from the circle of abstraction with its biomorphism and onerous ambiguity. It also determines subsequent important concepts: the immateriality, potential changeability and infinity of the works in the case of which the algorithm and the language of mathematics set their own logical principles of post-photography. As a result, a new kind of imaging has been created. We will soon find out to which extent it will dominate the culture of 2020s, as it contradicts the tradition of analogue photography and the hitherto prevailing theory of image attached to the concept of “trace” and “index” as a guarantee of reality that “it happened”, but persists into the present through its corporeality and continuous creation of symbols and ideas.”

“The exhibition at the FF Gallery I saw on 25 March 2021 left a lasting impression on me. The proposal of exhibiting works using the form of lightbox enhanced the sense of mystery. An elevated, if not mournful, ambience was created. The exhibition presents new problems regarding the continuation of creative practice in subsequent decades using “digital machines” generating images.”
Krzysztof Jurecki PhD – artist critic

„NxN” individual exhibition in FF Gallery / Łódź, Poland 2021

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„NxN” individual exhibition in K-Mag Art Spot Gallery / Warsaw, Poland 2022