The worlds mechanical production warehouses are ruled by the clones of one robot; Kuka. They are what the iPhone is to the phone market, but to the production world. The British Telecom of the warehouse, The Post Office of Automated production. A self fulfilled prophecy. A worker that doesn’t get pregnant, sick, tired, or ask to ever go home. Flawless. In characteristics and aesthetics. Its flattering uniform of bright spray paint colour coded for their purpose, makes it stand out in the grey of the aluminium that houses the production warehouses it lives, works and never dies in.
If KUKA were a sex worker, this is what it may look like. Emotionless while still somehow seemingly sultry. Where as KUKA is and arm with the purpose of creation and little else. When the time comes to start outsourcing our sex lives to autonomous beings because having an intimate relationship takes far too much time and effort. What will the beings look like. Not with just a singular purpose of pleasure, but also for companionship, or just a help around the house, the ultimate sex slave. A robot doesn’t need a safe word, does it?
The origin of life. While also being its final form. A reduction of all sentient beings. All individuals amalgamated into one organic being. All human souls merged into one through the passage of an individual. Tikkun olam. The Tree of Life converted back to its original seed. A self contained being, which has no need for identity. Because when you are the only being why would you need one. You have no need to. A consciousness that cannot conflict with other consciousnesses, and can no longer be self aware as it has not other conscious to negate. It becomes within a state of instrumentality. Nothingness, while still being infinitely everything.
The definition and explanation of LCL, a fictional liquid from the universe of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Taken from http://wiki.evageeks.org/LCL LCL is an amber-colored, translucent liquid, which allows an Eva pilot to mentally link with their Evangelion Unit. The Entry Plug of an Eva Unit, containing its cockpit, is completely flooded with LCL, and, because it is oxygenated[1], upon being submerged Eva pilots can “breathe” the liquid (similar to real-life experiments involving liquid breathing). Upon Evangelion activation, an electrical current is run through the LCL and it undergoes a phase shift, after which its density, opacity and viscosity appears to approach that of air. However, the LCL remains in a liquid phase and does not undergo a transition: the pilots appear to be surrounded by air, however occasionally air bubbles will float away from their mouths, revealing that they are still in a liquid medium. LCL is strictly the only thing a pilot absolutely requires to synch with an Eva: plug suits “cut down on interference” but on several occasions the pilot hasn’t worn one, and while Interface Headsets are much more necessary to synching, when Shinji piloted Eva-01 for the final time in End of Evangelion he did not wear an Interface Headset (although by that time he was essentially a passenger inside the Eva). Case in point, Toji and Kensuke, wearing neither plug suits nor interface headsets, manage to induce interference in Episode 03 when they enter the entry plug. It is stated several times in the series that LCL smells “like blood”. LCL is, in fact, the blood of the Second Angel, Lilith, which is restrained in the deepest level of Nerv HQ, “Terminal Dogma”. The “LCL Plant” in Terminal Dogma is actually an entire lake formed from the blood of Lilith. LCL shares similar properties with the hypothetical “primordial ooze” from which life on Earth first evolved. This is because non-Angel life on Earth actually originally evolved from the LCL spread by Lilith when she landed on Earth. During Third Impact, Lilith’s Anti A.T. Field causes the A.T. Fields of human beings and all other Lilith-based life to collapse, reverting their bodies to puddles of LCL. LCL apparently has sources in addition to Lilith’s body. In Episode 20, Shinji’s body reforms from LCL within the core of Eva-01. LCL is also seen escaping Eva-00’s core in Episode 23’ and Eva-01’s (again) in Episode 26’.
Identity is futile, when all sentient beings are combined into one consciousness. Identities are a feature of human sociology that can no any longer be recognised. Pure information not tainted by the characteristics of the individual human being.
Profound quotes from the original film Ghost in the Shell (1995).
“I mean, have you ever actually seen your brain?”
“What if a cyber brain could possibly generate its own ghost, create a soul all by itself? And if it did, just what would be the importance of being human then?�
“I am not an AI... I am a living, thinking entity that was created in the sea of information.�
“ We have been subordinate to our limitations until now. The time has come to cast aside these bonds and to elevate our consciousness to a higher plane. It is time to become a part of all things.�
“I feel confined, only free to expand myself within boundaries.”
“All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.�
Blazure; (noun) the brightest night sky. Taken from the words black and azure. Talking about ownership, dichotomies, responsibility in relation to the convergence of everyday living and technology.
They hereby certify that this what they are submitting to be somewhat their own original work except where otherwise indicated. They are aware of the world’s regulations concerning plagiarism, including those regulations concerning death penalties that may result from plagiarism. Any use of the works of any other author, in any form, is probably properly acknowledged at the point of use. The intention has been said to be a delusional prophecy of sorts. A black azure, bright yet bleak. Blazure. There is no intention of satisfying a utopian nor dystopian society, just take a position of submission. Your initial reaction of shock and disgust may grow to be infatuation and enthral, and vice versa. A neutral stance may seem unrealistic, but just try to feel nothing. Because feeling nothing has always come as naturally as saying sorry. The original purpose is not always the best one. Like QVC with nothing to sell. A 24/7 live stream of a shopping channel with no products, TV presenters awkwardly passing queues not knowing what to talk about. Conversation turns to personal matters with the lack of produce on the market stall. But people still religiously tune in everyday. A porn website featuring no nudity. The comment section is not swarmed by comments such as “Putting his foot on that slut’s head was a great move” but instead “I used to live very near there before I married my first husband. Have a great time xx”. The conversations are about the mundane every day, photos of people going out for dinner, not videos of Jessica getting plowed on a Sunday afternoon by her brother. The time has come to repossess your responsibility to the world that you walk through, and stop laying down and taking the punches that you receive. Be objective to the situation to which you succumb, don’t let your feelings towards past circumstances taint your vision of the future. Maybe all the so called “terrible” things happening in the world will turn out to be just what you needed. Your job being taken away and given to a robot means more time, less money and a life that is all yours. That politician getting power that can only mean death and despair, could cull the population and just save the environment. The same goes for that horrific war. Losing billions in finances could really be the career change you needed. That glacier melting will mean so much more clean water for the world. You dying tomorrow will mean so many more creatures of the world can thrive for longer. 37 Everyday Things That Look Insane in Slow Motion 18 Undeniable Facts That Prove the World Is Getting Better 24 Most Insane Features Of Real Life Houses 13 Most Ridiculous Things Happening Right Now 12 Important Things You Missed Out On 69 Sex Positions To Change Your Life That’s 173 things you could be reading instead of this.
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Exeshell; (verb) to extract a human mind out of it’s original body and place into the shell of a machine. Exe; (noun) An executable binary file. Some operating systems (notably MSDOS, VMS, and TWENEX) use the extension .EXE to mark such files. Talking about a future world in which we have stepped over to human 2.0 and are all technologically connected to the extent we are working as a single organism.
When does a human cease to be human through the amalgamation of mechanic and technological hardware? Does the ultimate convergence of these things make my brain nothing but software. Just because my cousin has a prosthetic limb, which helps him walk, does not mean he in now a machine. But if his whole body was replaced with a mechanical structure which incased his conscious mind meaning he could live forever, what is he now? Literally a ghost in the shell (Ghost In The Shell, 1995)? Imagine being fully sustained in consciousness by a mechanical body, with full access to a network of information at not the click of a button but by a mere fleeting thought. Network meaning not just the internet but also everything that is connected to the internet, every single device. Not only would one be technically immortal, but would also be inherently omniscient (Holloman and Adeyeri, 2012). Knowing everything that is wanted to be known and that can be known. A god unto ourselves. The most productive and intelligent we could be. Nothing we could not know or do. Impossible creativity. Could this be the final evolution of the human? You would feel it all around. The information endlessly cycling, like an infinite Rolodex of names, numbers, places, thoughts, the past, the future, every possible alternate and parallel universe at once. Like a mere three dimensional being - aka; us, the human- being plummeted into a ten dimensional universe (Bryanton, 2006). Imagine it like being able to feel every individual blood cell coursing through your veins. Overwhelming. Sensory overload for the human 2.0 (Clegg, 2008). Seeing into the fourth dimension, let alone the tenth dimension, would be paralysing. The complete overload of information. This way of existing would make it extremely difficult imagine what the present reality would feel like. We are comfortable with viewing the world in our current perceived dimensions but what goes beyond that, only with this kind of knowledge would we be able to see beyond. What comes with seeing beyond our own dimension is further knowledge. For example; Imagine you can see the whole of this universe. Not just like you were zooming out of a picture to see the whole image, but more like you are seeing every individual corner, edge, angle and facet of a cube at once. Instead of just seeing one view at a time everything is visible at once. Like a panopticon (Bentham, n.d.), with you as the guard being able to see every face of the prisoners around you, being able to communicate with them all at your will. Or a video; Not seeing each frame at a time but seeing every frame and hearing every sound at once. You feel it all around. The information endlessly cycling, like an infinite Rolodex with names, numbers, places, thoughts, the past, the future, every possible alternate and parallel universe at once. Seeing into the 10th dimension, would be paralysing. The complete overload of information. Call it evolution or an upgrade. The meme verses the gene. “Your data my data The chromosomes match. Exact as in matter, As a matter of fact, You know me better.� It would no longer be us/them or you/me the connected world would be so intrinsically interdependent and connected an would evolve to become a single organically technological being. Call it Melba. A system that works as one, a computer of sorts. But where a computer has a purpose, as in it has a task to fulfil, what would be Melbas purpose? What function would it serve. Destruction? Preservation? Creation?
Motorocative; (adjective) sexual in nature, in reference to automated being. An excerpt from an essay of mine “Artificial Gender Intelligence� Talking about sex and gender identity in relation to artificial intelligence, robots and cyborgs.
AI is sexless due to it having no reproductive system… as of yet. But only because we (humans) have created them in this way. This is not to say however that it is genderless. Our sociological way of living means all things are compulsively gendered. To speculate an autonomous AI being that can reproduce (spawn) other beings similar to itself seems far-fetched due to AI’s not having a desire for immortality nor to create a legacy. As essentially they are immortal, the only cause of death could be running out of power. But even then the power could be restored and the programme could be resumed, which is AI’s fundamental difference to humans. We are mortal, socially influenced, egotistical and primitive beings (among other things). This is the main reason we as humans have created AI’s in the image of ourselves, with gendered attributes, and relatable features to make them seem approachable or somewhat likeable. Because anything inhuman should be deemed as unorthodox, otherworldly and just too scary. Which seems strange seeing as aforementioned, AI are sexless beings, but gendering them in turn makes them sexualised and even erotic. Motorocative. But this is not just to make them relatable, traditionally servant robots are made to have female attributes and female names, and security bots are given the opposite which clearly shows us, not even sexless robots escape sexism. But as society begins to have more complex and different concepts of gender identity, will we start to programme these attributes into cyborg bodies. For example: in the future my human body is expiring, and I have the option to upload my mind and memories to a mechanical body. My mind will sit inside a vehicle that I will control as if it was my own body. But this vehicle does not have to look like what could be, or would be, considered human. So how do I choose a vehicle to represent me? I personally wouldn’t. I would choose a vehicle that would give me abilities that I did not possess within my human body. A Cyborg - similar in nature to AI - however, is essentially a human mind encased within a mechanical body, controlling itself. Where as AI is a computer programme created by humans to convey intelligence that is usually exclusive to humans or intelligent organisms, such as reasoning, planning, communication, and learning. In contrast to my point of how would I choose my cyborg vehicle, how would AI choose to manifest itself once it becomes able to build its own personality and identity? Similar to how Siri responds when asking what gender it identifies as, they don’t bother trying to explain it just tells me they exist outside of my human concept of gender. Clearly acknowledging that I will not even be able to comprehend its identity, so why bother trying to explain it.
Films, books, podcasts and videos of which I have used for inspiration and reference while making this publication.
Donna Hardaway - Cyborg Manifesto http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/ theory/Haraway-CyborgManifesto-1.pdf Her - Spike Jonse (2013) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_(film) Jason Hopkins - Ongoing work (via Abdominal) http://www.abhominal.com/posthumans/ posthuman-structure-1 Pierce, S. and Coates, A. -AMERICAN REFLEXXX. (2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXn1xavynj8 RoboCop - Paul Verhoeven (1987) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboCop secondlife.com - Linden Suthrell, C. (2004) Unzipping Gender: Sex, Cross-dressing and Culture (Dress, body, culture). Berg Publishers. Turk, V. (2014). We're Sexist Toward Robots. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/ were-sexist-toward-robots Brian Merchant - Fully automated luxury communism (2015) https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/mar/18/fully-automated-luxury-communism-robots-employment Aaron Bastani- We Don’t Need More Austerity: We Need Luxury Communism (2015) http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/luxury-communism-933
Bentham, J. (n.d.). Box 119 [Drawings, manuscripts, plans and sketches] http://www.transcribe-bentham.da.ulcc. ac.uk/td/Category:Box_119, Bentham Collection at UCL Special Collections. London. Bryanton, R. (2006) - Imagining the tenth dimension 1st ed. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford. Clegg, B. (2008) - Upgrade Me 1st ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Ghost In The Shell. (1995). - Mamoru Oshii. Holloman, C. and Adeyeri, E. (2012) - The social media MBA 1st ed. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley, p.Chapter 23: God Technology. Neon Genesis Evangelion. (2000) -Hideaki Anno. Stern, R. (2002). Hegel and the Phenomenology of Spirit. 1st ed. [ebook] London: Routledge, p.Chapter 5: The Dialectic of Religion. Available at: http://filosofia.fflch.usp.br/sites/filosofia. fflch.usp.br/files/docentes/sites/safatle/2015/ posgrad/aulas_FLF5189/Routledge%20-%20 Hegel%20and%20the%20Phenomenology%20 of%20Spirit.pdf [Accessed 20 Nov. 2016]. The Matrix. (1999) - Lilly Wachowski Tron. (1982) - Steven Lisberger Walker, B. (2013). The Clouds (2 of 3) [podcast] The Theory of Everything. Available at: https://soundcloud.com/bwalker/theclouds-2-of-3 [Accessed 29 Oct. 2016].
The name of our newspaper came from a conversation Nicole and I had. We were talking about how we needed to pick up the pace on making decisions about the publication itself. Nicole: “I know we just need to be super, super ten times now from now on�
For the lay out of our publication we wanted it to be an item that people would want to keep, unlike a daily newspaper which are thrown away after less than one read. It needed to feel special enough to be out on display, and cumbersome enough to not read on the go. So we decided on an A2 double sided sheet. On one side would be a glossy full bleed image acting as the cover, but more so as a poster. An image which represented the article that would be on the reverse side of the image. With the image acting as the cover and a poster that could be displayed in the home we didn’t want to put text on the image at all we wanted it to speak for itself. So we thought of having a second sheet of tracing paper to have laying over the poster which would act as the completing factor for the cover with the title of the magazine printed on to it, with the image from the poster showing through the tracing paper faintly. However with this, the tracing paper could not be digitally printed on to so we decide to letterpress on to it, this would also added some needed texture and process to the publication which was needed due to it feeling fairly flat with it being only two sheets and digitally printed. Due to the size and nature of the publication we needed to create some thing to also encase the publication, to protect it. We originally decided to go for a box to encase each issue. However it then came to light that it would be a much better idea to combine the tracing paper with the protecting case. So a hard backed envelope with tracing paper used as the cover was a much more fitting concept.
Created in collaboration with Nicole.
Image scanned from Flexo magazine, which was used as visual inspiration for our first cover of SUPER10XNOW (S10XN). We chose it for its interesting use of colour, abstract nature and the connotations of artificial intelligence. While also for its retro futuristic styling.
Editing the photo to look more hyper-realistic and to add qualities of CGI / 3D Rendering as to give the image more depth in colour and to make the mannequin look more similar to that of the example image from Flexo magazine.
Created by myself.
Too create the render on the right I used a combination of Cinema 4D and Photoshop, while using the above image as a start. I wanted to take an image and turn it into something that resembled an organic simple single celled creature. To show that everything starts from nothing, and that is just where it will end too. The same for the following images.
Created by Liam Sielski Waters Commissioned by Myself I asked Liam to create several pieces of work for this project with this piece in particular I gave him the article I had written along with the reading list, but I gave him no visual stimulus as to encourage him to stay true to his style of work. High res and other worldly with impossible structures.
An organic mass, sustained in life by the technology that conceived it. The purpose it serves, nothing but pleasure.
Created by Liam Sielski Waters Commissioned by Myself With this cover, When I asked Liam to render this cover I dont have a compleated article to show him, as Nicole had not yet finished it. So I gave him the visual stimulus I had gathered and created, which gave us a completely different out come to the first cover.
The sex bot walks away empty handed. But always full bodied rich in experience and love for all humans.
Letterpress: Typesetting - Nicole and Jam Envelope Printing - Jam Title Printing - Jam Finishing - Jam Digital Layout: Overall Layout - Nicole and Jam Typesetting - Jam Image Production: Blazure - Myself Exeshell - Nicole and Jam Replisphere - Liam and Jam Motorocative - Liam and Jam Image Post Production: For all issues - Jam Written Content: Blazure, Exeshell, and Motorocative - Myself Replisphere - Nicole Online Content: Layout - Nicole