Visionary artist Memo Akten questions the nature of consciousness in the Australian premiere of his multi-screen, AI exhibition at ACMI.
ACMI is set to showcase the work of trailblazing, multi-disciplinary artist, researcher and computer scientist, Memo Akten, with the Australian premiere of AI exhibition Distributed Consciousness from 16 June 2023 – 16 June 2024.
Presented in ACMI’s Gallery 2, the exhibition is part of an ongoing international moving image art series generously supported by ACMI’s Major Philanthropic Partner, Naomi Milgrom AC and the Naomi Milgrom Foundation.
Memo Akten: Distributed Consciousness
- 16 June 2023 – 16 June 2024
- ACMI, Gallery 2
- Free
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Visitors are invited to embrace the interconnectivity of everything, as the visually compelling installation explores human and non-human consciousness – and using them for collective good – via the Al (Artificial Intelligence) musings of octopus-like digital beings.
“The Internet is not a bunch of computers connected to each other,
but a bunch of human minds connected to each other.” – Verse 220, Distributed Consciousness
Dreamt up by Akten during 2020 – 2021 in a remote Turkish fishing village; Distributed Consciousness was inspired by his daily diving encounters with octopuses. Akten is a multi-disciplinary artist, musician, researcher and computer scientist from Istanbul, who explores the tensions between ecology, technology, science and spirituality; studying intelligence in nature, intelligence in machines, perception, consciousness, neuroscience, physics and (philosophies of) spirituality, ritual and religion. He uses code as his craft to create images, sounds, films, large-scale responsive installations and performances.
The work began as a set of online digital artworks, with the now eight-channel video installation featuring 256 unique images of octopus-like Tentacular Creatures created with custom Artificial Intelligence software coded by the artist.
Octopuses are incredibly intelligent; only 10% of their neurons are in a central brain, while the rest is distributed across their bodies. Distributed Consciousness draws parallels between the distributed computation performed by smart-contract based blockchains, and the distributed cognition of these octopus-like creatures.
Each image in the exhibition has hidden text encoded within it: a verse, invisible to the human eye but readable by computers, collectively forming a manifesto that spans consciousness, free will, life, death, art, technology, ritual, ecology, economy and sustainability.
“We need to tell different stories. Stories of possibilities. Stories of hope. We need to cultivate new ways of being, so that we can be present in the world as it is. We need to find the time to act, now more than ever.” – Verse 245 Distributed Consciousness
Distributed Consciousness is presented in an immersive environment where a selection of ‘tentacular creatures’ and ‘verses’ are played in a 20-minute-long story on eight human-sized screens. The vibrant images provide a playful entry for audiences into Memo’s work, while those looking to explore further can dive deeper into its key themes of ecology and equity: the tentacular creatures take us through the environmental challenges facing the planet, and guide us towards a more constructive, collaborative – and conscious future.
Akten said: “I’m very excited to be showing this work at ACMI. This is not only an Australian premiere of the work, but a brand-new presentation, with refined content adapted specifically for ACMI. In that respect, this is the first showing of this unique incarnation. I’m really looking forward to sharing this work and its message with ACMI’s audience.”
ACMI Executive Director of Programming Keri Elmsly added: “Distributed Consciousness offers up a poetic manifesto on the nature of consciousness with these wildly beautiful tentacular creatures as our guide. This exhibition is a first for ACMI, its hugely important that we engage with the artists whose practice is deeply embedded in human guided machine learning (AI), the ethics, creative potential, and the underlying systems. The work simultaneously delivers wonder and awe with its vivid and strange critters underpinned by the fundamental question ‘what is the nature of consciousness?’”
Memo Akten: Distributed Consciousness will show in ACMI’s Gallery 2 from 16 June 2023 – 16 June 2024. For further details visit acmi.net.au.
