Ioannis Bardakos

In nature validation for physiological and emotional bonding becomes a mode for supporting social connectivity. Similarly, in the blockchain ecosystem, cryptographic validation becomes the substrate for all interactions. In the dialogue between human and artificial intelligence (AI) agents, between the real and the virtual, one can distinguish threads of physical or mental entanglements allowing different modes of participation. One could even suggest that in all types of realities there exist frameworks that are to some extent equivalent and act as validation mechanisms for behavioural interweaving. Relevant to our own experience as an Editorial Organism, in this issue of Technoetic Arts we explore modes of participation and collaboration through different lenses by including guest-edited sections and stand-alone articles.

In this research we will examine the paradox nature of self-reference. This concept appears in the form of pure feedback loops in language and mathematics and naturally extends towards many different domains such as biology, sociology, art and philosophy. The basic elements of human experience show the manifestations of such loops. Their results are noticeable in internal or external, mental or body processes. Our interest with these loops focuses on the domain of brain processes in observing, thinking and interpreting as it is meticulously analysed in the books Gödel Escher Bach and I Am a Strange Loop. Through the interactive artistic experiments ‘Ouroboros VR Self-Reference Apparatus’ by John Bardakos (2015) and ‘Anima’ by Elhem Younes (2016) we explore applied and theoretical concepts and experiences in logic, dream aesthetics and the human creativity. These experiments were conducted using ‘perception’ as a natural model of aesthetics generator via self-reference. Within this model, the loops were enriched with an artistic metamorphose of data from measurements of the human space to the aesthetic objects in the virtual space. Through the quantifiable perception feedback loop and the digital interaction, the spectator changes his role and becomes an active artist expressing himself or herself to a digital output with the support of data. The now post-conscious artist, with the use of visual and audio-visual tool sets, observes the fusion of art technology and aesthetics being transformed into basic elements that form consciousness.

In the context of a viral outbreak and necessary physical distancing, the emergence of new or the evolution of older artistic behavioural schemes becomes evident. We correlate the isolation space of the artist with the cockpit of a spaceship and the navigation and communication interfaces used by an astronaut. The cybernetic domain between physical space(s) and artist(s) can be thought of as consisting of many ‘organs’. It includes a core (black box), many-layered limits: skin, walls, mental and digital borders as well as mechanisms of connectivity with external entities (other astronauts in art spaceships). This space could be a bedroom, a studio, an office or any different location the artist uses as an isolated bubble of information sharing and manipulation (material and immaterial). For the construction of such an (astronaut, artist) ontology we use metaphors, etymological references, transformed concepts and creative analogies between the actual and the subjective space. As one case study for this paradigm, we experimented with a telematic performance of Heiner Müller’s Hamlet Machine titled, I want to be 171.