GMU:Hallucinating computers and dreaming non-machines

Project Module: Hallucinating Computers and Dreaming Non-Machines

Isabella Lee Arturo, Dr. Mindaugas Gapševičius, Prof. Ursula Damm

The course wants to stimulate and accompany projects of students dealing with emergent behavior of computers and/or their co-existence with non-machines. Non-machine is a term which has been introduced by Mindaugas Gapsevicius and names all non-technical subjects (humans, animals, plants). It inspires us to look at living things from the perspective of a machine and vice versa.

In the module we want to imagine how non-humans dream or how we - humans can use our dreams for a meaningful exchange with other non-machines.

We comprehend the concept of [dreaming] as a term that connects with fictions, futuristic speculations and desires.

And what about human-shaped machines? Being confronted with hallucinations of software processes in many facets of our daily lives, we would also like to better understand the difference between computer hallucinations and our own dreaming capacity.

More and more research focuses on all the creatures which made human life possible. Millions of years of photosynthesis made it possible for us to live on earth today. The ecological crises show that we have not yet understood our dependence on our ecological embedding. Have we developed the wrong kind of technology? What can the capabilities of contemporary technology contribute to a common, intellectual and spiritual sphere?

Syllabus

• 14-04-2025. Lead: Isabella / miga, Introduction mentors and students. Wiki
• 15-04-2025. Lead: Isabella / miga, non-machines presentation / Latinamerica Artist presentation
• 21-04-2025. Holidays
• 22-04-2025. Lead: Isabella, First Wall Presentation (Studio Tour) / Body Workshop
• 28-04-2025. Lead: Bethan Hughes / Miga
• 29-04-2025. Lead: Bethan Hughes / Miga
• 05-05-2025. Lead: Isabella, Studio Afternoon
• 06-05-2025. Lead: Isabella, Presentation Day]]
• 12-05-2025. Lead: Lia Giannakou / Miga, /The Conscious Body: An Emergency Act
• 13-05-2025. Lead: Miga, Reading Non-machines, Presentation Day
• 19-05-2025. Lead: Moritz Wehrmann / Isabella, Workshop
• 20-05-2025. Lead: Moritz Wehrmann / Isabella, Workshop
• 26-05-2025. Lead: Miga, Studio Afternoon
• 27-05-2025. Lead: Miga, Presentation Day
• 02-06-2025. Lead: Isabella, Studio Afternoon
• 03-06-2025. Lead: Isabella, Presentation Day
• 09-06-2025. Pfingsten: 09.06.2025
• 10-06-2025. Lead: Miga, Mid-term Project presentation
• 16-06-2025. Lead: Isabella, Mid-term Project presentation
• 17-06-2025. Lead: Isabella, Mid-term Project presentation
• 23-06-2025. Lead: Iannis Zannos. Miga, /Bartok as Proto-Bio-Artist
• 24-06-2025. Lead: Miga, Mid-term Project presentation
• 30-06-2025. Lead: Isabella, Mid-term Project presentation
• 01-07-2025. Lead: Isabella, Mid-term Project presentation
• 07-07-2025. Lead: Isabella+miga
• 08-07-2025. Lead: Isabella+miga, summaery 2025

Recommended Fach courses

• Unexpected Imageries - programming generative art By Ting Chun Liu
• Aesthetics of Macroworlds by Alessandro Volpato and Alexander König
• A investigation in machine learing / "AI" by Alexander König
• Computer Aided Fabrication and the Wilderness by Felix Bonowski
• Speech to Text to Actions by Isabella Lee Arturo
• Technosolutionism + Silicone Nightmares by Bethan Hughes

Artists

• Heather Dewey-Hagborg
• Anna Ridler
• Stephanie Rothenberg
• Afroditi Psarra
• Špela Petrič

Recommended Literature

• Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics
• Hui, Y. (2024). Cybernetics for the 21st Century. Vol. 1: Epistemological Reconstruction. Hong Kong: Hanart Press. Available at https://hanart.press/cybernetics-for-the-21st-century-vol-1/
• Hayles, N. K. 1999. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Available at http://thedigitalcommons.org/docs/hayles-posthuman-01.pdf
• AI Uncovered (2024). “Here's How AI 2.0 Will Be DIFFERENT.” Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkS3cG3jCt0