I would like to start this post by saying that the starting point was quite different from how I later wanted to develop this research. Somehow, the binomial with which I wanted to observe the behaviors of imagination, namely that of human - machine, began to appear restrictive to me as I delved deeper into the meanings of intelligence and thought generation. Therefore, it seemed necessary to think and include everything that can be considered a creature: humans, plants, animals, fungi, machines, and so on. Creatures started to be the object of my studies, and so did the biomes in which they lived and thrived.
I want to specify that the use I make of the words creatures and biomes is to take as something that recalls the function of an infinitive soft container: it keeps getting filled without ever spilling, it takes the shape of whatever its content is.
This is part two of my research, I hope you'll find something interesting in it!
@ch3cc6
2. Net
Key words: THRESHOLD - PULSATION - POSSIBILITY - NETWORK
After the permeation of the mirror membrane, one enters a transitional space. This environment consists of networks and connective meshes, pulsating and endowed with a continuous motion of absorbing information. Beings who have become mirrors find themselves inhabiting this threshold, welcoming it into their inner selves before reaching the symbiotic space.
Through the membrane of the mirror and its permeating action, the corporeal has been surpassed to enter the threshold, an alternate space.
This threshold, located between the divided world and the symbiotic world, is a fluctuating and immersive space designated for the transformation into plus-creatures, individuals who begin processes of relation and connection.
This space expresses the desire for recomposition, the aspiration to build a link between what lies before the membrane and what lies after, between what was once separated and what is now united, in a dimension of possibility and coexistence.
It is the space of memory and collective sensitivity and, at the same time, a simulation, an appearance that allows one to abandon corporeality and one's own semblances to achieve a symbiosis of refraction and transparency, a way to see beyond and through.
Refraction becomes the key that opens the doors to a shared reality, where the boundaries between the individual and the collective blur. It is the space of metamorphosis, challenging the understanding of a world that goes beyond our individual self.
The threshold invites us to explore not only our personal identity but also our belonging to a broader world, where interconnection and the sharing of experiences become the essence of who we are, of who we are becoming.
The shared experience within this space drives us to evolve towards a new form of being, where the distinctions between the real and the virtual dissolve, the limits of known reality are surpassed, becoming transparent. The understanding and thus the effectiveness of the threshold's action are due to this capacity for transparency and refraction.
The desire for recomposition that the membrane has provoked in the creatures is satisfied by the connections that the threshold builds for a collective memory. Communicating and shared networks that continuously pulsate with information. The simulation of the threshold, its appearance as a transitional-space, does not abandon us; it is our memory, it is the incorporeal part of the creatures.
The medial space is a natural secret theater where everything reappears, a constantly moving stage that opens the way to another life, a life different from the one everything has in matter and minds. The medium is a fragment of the world that allows forms to extend their life beyond their nature and beyond their material and corporeal existence. This additional and receptive space is not based on a specific nature separate from the rest of natures, but on an immaterial and nameless power, shared by all bodies.
Emanuele Coccia, La vita sensibile, Il Mulino, Bologna 2011
The internal dimension of the threshold is rich in possibilities and coexistence; it is the place designated for the intertwining of memory and collective sensitivity in an intimate association of coevolution among all creatures. This shared memory becomes an archive of thoughts, sensations, and memories. It is fertile ground for all creatures drawing from it to build ideas and conceive possibilities. The ontology of imagination*—its mechanisms and influences—becomes collective with the opening to infinite spaces of unlimited possibilities.
*Simone Arcagni, L!occhio della macchina, Einaudi, Torino 2018, p. 89
Elèmire Zolla writes in Lo stupore infantile: “Man will be transformed by the constant shift from ordinary reality to a plurality of virtual realities: the primacy, the absoluteness of ordinary concrete reality will collapse.” The other space is precisely the meeting of this plurality. The motion of the threshold leads us to a conclusion: the inner memory of each creature embraces sharing and engagement with a broader dimension towards a symbiotic world.
No creature is a tool but an extension of the collective.
Wanting to spoil a bit of what is coming next I'm adding the frame work of the research here:
Where I read and found the most loveliest things:
Thom Bettridge, Skyrim Sunsets: Artist JON RAFMAN on Exploring VR with Oculus Rift Development Kit 2, in 032c, 24 luglio 2015, https://032c.com/magazine/skyrim-sunsets-artist-jon-rafman-on-exploring-vr-with-the-oculus-rift-development-kit-2
Vincenzo Cherubino Bigi, Cantico Delle Creature (Il) di Francesco D’Assisi, Porziuncola, Assisi 2008
James Bridle, Modi di essere - animali, piante e computer: al di là dell’intelligenza umana, Rizzoli, Milano 2022
Jay David Bolter, Diane Gromala, Windows and mirrors : interaction design, digital art, and the myth of transparency, The MIT Press, Londra 2005
Orphan Drift’s, If AI were Cephalopod, in OrphanDriftarchive, maggio 2019, https://www.orphandriftarchive.com/if-ai/if-ai-were-cephalopod/.
Emanuele Coccia, La vita sensibile, Il Mulino, Bologna 2011
Donna Haraway, Chtulucene: sopravvivere su un pianeta infetto, NERO, Roma 2020
Arnaud Maillet, Jeff Fort, The Claude glass : use and meaning of the black mirror in western art, Jeff Fort (tradotto da), Zone Books, New York 2004
Bruno Munari, Da cosa nasce cosa, Editori Laterza, Bari 2009
Bruno Munari, Fantasia, Editori Laterza, Bari 2017
Massimo Negrotti (a cura di), Capire l’artificiale - Dall’analogia all’integrazione uomo-macchina, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 1990
Gianni Rodari, Grammatica della fantasia – Introduzione all’arte di inventare storie, Einaudi ragazzi, San Dorligo della Valle 2013
Valentina Tanni, Exit Reality, NERO, Roma 2023
Laura Tripaldi, Parallel Minds: Discovering the Intelligence of Materials, Urbanomic, Windsor Quarry 2022
Elémire Zolla, Lo stupore infantile: con un inedito sui giochi dei bambini, Grazia Marchianò (a cura di), Marsilio, Venezia 2014
I would like to express my sincere and profound gratitude to Francesco Bergamo,
the professor who has accompanied and supported me throughout my studies.
His guidance, commitment, and dedication have been crucial to my academic journey,
and I am deeply grateful for his invaluable contribution!
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