I Taught AI How to Cry

2020

photography/biochemistry/AI

We are everything and nothing, everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Are higher feelings and values distorted? Are we losing the ability to communicate and to be empathetic? Does loneliness and uncertainty in the global world of social networks arise due to excessive amounts of information, ideas, and alternatives? How to live in a world where so much is possible? Does technology forcefully structure our naturally creative minds? Does it lead to alienation instead of connecting us? Does social functioning require emotion? Do we need to recognise, interpret, or generate emotions? How are emotions conceptually represented in the mind? What are the effects of the increasing “virtualisation” on our understanding of reality?

My aim is to reconsider the notion and importance of feeling in this “technological” society. I am interested in the idea that our feelings are “written” in our tears. Tears contain different levels of proteins, enzymes, hormones, and salts. Therefore, depending on what emotion we experience at a given moment, the crystalline structure of tears visually changes. It is not just a way to read the visual representation of an emotion, but also part of some mystical unity. It is a belief that the truth of our inner state can be communicated just through the crystaline form of tears. It is an idea that the language of tears is an unmediated form of access to emotions. Tears. This precious liquid. Manifestation of our emotions.

What you can see are crystaline structures of my tears magnified by microscope from the period March 2020 till March 2021. I am searching for truth in an emotional information which I present as abstract language - like structured symbols. Behind each tear there is a story. I let artificial intelligence generate new “emotional” stories based on this collection of stories I had. Metaphorically, I taught artificial intelligence how to cry.