‘All that is Solid melts into Air’ is a phrase first used by Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto, in the context of rapid industrialization and capitalist expansion of the 19th century which was leading to a dissolution of traditional societal structures and values, creating a sense of instability and impermanence. Later in 1982, Marshall Berman, an american philosopher and a marxist humanist writer, elaborated further on it, in the context of Modernity, during which the scientific and technological advancements including inventions ranging from photography, film, television, radio, internet, and so on, created a divided experience, defined by the loss of the old world paired with the creation of the new. Furthermore, this heraclitean like paean has been frequently used by many, to emphasize the flux and impermanence of things, calling attention to the inevitable impending doom of a disappearance or dissolution of existing societal forms and figures, to make way for the new. Almost always, one of the major catalysts for such periods of entropy and radical change has been rapid development in the means of production - the systems of machinery that bring about a qualitative change in the way in which society operates.
Within the contemporary context of rapid unprecedented technological advancements, marked by the arrival of the Cambrian explosion of Artificial Intelligence, the Machine (which had extended the human in wondrous ways, allowing command, by effect of convenience and efficiency, while also simultaneously penetrating and inhabiting the innermost crevices of its fragmented and alienated existence) having evolved from mechanization, digitisation and computation, now begins to finally and full-fledgedly embrace the realm of Automation. No longer just an assisting tool, but the Machine becomes the Master, a relatively self-operating control mechanism, governing almost everything, resulting in a Life which is no longer lived, but having become mere aggregated data, further gathered and fed to algorithms which constantly synthesize / generate new realities, redefining choices, behavior, and imagination, thus reducing the human to an automaton. Artificial Intelligence seems to offer many potentially liberating opportunities for production of empowering narratives and subjectivities, as it holds the power to challenge and go beyond all too narrow humanistic perspectives and necessities, by effectively decentering & throwing away to the margins, the enlightened narcissistic human ego subject, its anthropocentric compositional lens, and assumed authoritative central status, moving towards a supposedly objective truth that the generative method provides. But again, what seems as a utopian vision now, in actuality, remains a false horizon, as the machine, far from being a neutral powerful tool, in a socially divided and unequal capitalist neo-feudalist society, remains a victim itself, as it only favors the ideologies of corporations and oligarchs. In such a case, art too, in favor of a single universal pseudo-culture of consumption and exploitation is not a reflection of knowledge systems, socio-political struggles, subcultural representation, or a catalyst of change, but rather a means of aestheticizing the system's agenda and trends. Instead of critical art, the system promotes profitable entertainment without social symbolism, reflections, or signs of activism. Therefore, alongside merely innovating within the given framework, interrogating epistemological lenses and advocating cultural norms, codes and forms, what is required more than ever is an active intervention with the tools, the modes and means of production as well. Not a limited participation that subscribes itself to the existing available means that follow the same deterministic hegemonic logic, but a radically new method that serves as a prototype for further emerging Microtopias.
All that is Solid melts into the Air, is a world building exercise that constructs a critical narrative mirroring the spectacle and horrors of such a situation where enjoyment is promised, but within an ethos of fear and panic, where one is provoked to resist decoupling of intelligence from an empathetic consciousness, and rethink what it is to be human?
Within the contemporary context of rapid unprecedented technological advancements, marked by the arrival of the Cambrian explosion of Artificial Intelligence, the Machine (which had extended the human in wondrous ways, allowing command, by effect of convenience and efficiency, while also simultaneously penetrating and inhabiting the innermost crevices of its fragmented and alienated existence) having evolved from mechanization, digitisation and computation, now begins to finally and full-fledgedly embrace the realm of Automation. No longer just an assisting tool, but the Machine becomes the Master, a relatively self-operating control mechanism, governing almost everything, resulting in a Life which is no longer lived, but having become mere aggregated data, further gathered and fed to algorithms which constantly synthesize / generate new realities, redefining choices, behavior, and imagination, thus reducing the human to an automaton. Artificial Intelligence seems to offer many potentially liberating opportunities for production of empowering narratives and subjectivities, as it holds the power to challenge and go beyond all too narrow humanistic perspectives and necessities, by effectively decentering & throwing away to the margins, the enlightened narcissistic human ego subject, its anthropocentric compositional lens, and assumed authoritative central status, moving towards a supposedly objective truth that the generative method provides. But again, what seems as a utopian vision now, in actuality, remains a false horizon, as the machine, far from being a neutral powerful tool, in a socially divided and unequal capitalist neo-feudalist society, remains a victim itself, as it only favors the ideologies of corporations and oligarchs. In such a case, art too, in favor of a single universal pseudo-culture of consumption and exploitation is not a reflection of knowledge systems, socio-political struggles, subcultural representation, or a catalyst of change, but rather a means of aestheticizing the system's agenda and trends. Instead of critical art, the system promotes profitable entertainment without social symbolism, reflections, or signs of activism. Therefore, alongside merely innovating within the given framework, interrogating epistemological lenses and advocating cultural norms, codes and forms, what is required more than ever is an active intervention with the tools, the modes and means of production as well. Not a limited participation that subscribes itself to the existing available means that follow the same deterministic hegemonic logic, but a radically new method that serves as a prototype for further emerging Microtopias.
All that is Solid melts into the Air, is a world building exercise that constructs a critical narrative mirroring the spectacle and horrors of such a situation where enjoyment is promised, but within an ethos of fear and panic, where one is provoked to resist decoupling of intelligence from an empathetic consciousness, and rethink what it is to be human?