FIDELIA IBEKWE
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God, Golem & Gynoids


  • Misogyny is rife in AI​
​To illustrate how AI is replicating the prevailing inequalities between sexes real life, this artwork illustrated the misogynist nature of AI by illustrating the gender stereotypes assigned to gynoids (women robots).
The whole exhibit was wrapped in a futuristic atmosphere with an intimate setting. Neon lights and black tarpaulin created a luminescent and somber atmosphere. A transparent tarpaulin was used to partition the exhibit area into two sections. When the visitor enters the shop, s/he is welcomed by a team member who accompanies the customer throughout the entire guided tour and explains the process of creating the gynoids.

​
The exhibit had several areas:
I - A large poster containing a patchwork of posters (above) offered a retrospective of the advent of cybernetics from the 1950s to the current time .
II - A simulation area of the exhibit designed as a gynoids shop enabling a role-playing game that allowed visitors to experience the theories mobilised. One of the ladies played the role of the gynoid. The gynoid shop was inspired by the "Wallace Corporation", a direct reference to the film Blade Runner 2049 in which the Wallace Corporation manufactured humanoids on a massive scale that offered specific services such as perfect girlfriend, the perfect wife capable of bearing children and the perfect hostess. To do this, the students looked into Love Dolls that are becoming part of the intimacy of more and more people. There is a fine line between gynoids and Love Dolls. Love Dolls cannot communicate, but they all look the same. They are generally white women with surreal measurements, which is a marker of a great lack of diversity. The students wanted to denounce this lack of diversity as well as the fact that it is mainly male buyers who are driving the tyranny of the "perfect female" companion.
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  •  God, Golem and Gynoids
Two transparent busts were used to demonstrate the process of building gynoid robots. The first bust was fitted with an "on-board computer" connected to electronic circuits, thick cables and a string of lights and aimed to show the internal manufacturing system of a robot. The other bust dressed in a black dressing gown was the finished product of the manufacturing of gynoids. One of the group members played the role of the housewife gynoid. She represents the golem, this spectre of a manufactured monster man. The gynoid resembles a woman She can mimic human behaviour, and obeys her buyer without limits. This “golem” does everything to resemble its creator, but what is really inside remains unclear and disturbing.
The gynoid represents a feminine ideal that fuels many fantasies.
As the golem-gynoid must satisfy human needs, it also display Wiener’s retroaction qualities inherent in cybernetics by constantly learning and adjusting its reactions. There is an expectation that in the future, these intelligent machines will be able to anticipate our emotional and physiological needs and will be able to surpass our intelligence.
This "fear of an imbalance in the power of the living over a device" runs through this artwork around the question “Should Man fear the machine? » The exhibition sought to make this fear palpable for the visitor. But it was also important not to influence visitor’s view on the effect of AI and humanoids. 
  • The era of Singularity​
​The students who produced this immersive exhibit were inspired by the film "Blade Runner 2049" by Denis Villeneuve (2017). The film relates an almost indistinguishable cohabitation between man and machine. It underlines the danger of this promiscuity and the thin barrier distinguishing robots from humans. If their way of communicating and interacting is the same as that of humans, what separates us from robots? And what will happen when an android (a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human) can reproduce themselves?​
This exhibit raised the question of the impact of a robotic technological development seen as a means of communication between man and machine but also of domination. An increasingly sensitive and thorny subject. And with good reason. Robotics is constantly pushing the boundaries to create super beings that are being introduced everywhere: in the workplace, in research, in the medical sector, in sports, arts and culture but also more worryingly, into the private sphere (silver economy for instance). 
This exhibit was an opportunity to discuss the theme of the golem, and excessive automation and the uncertain future that singularity has in store for humanity. Is the idea of larger-than-life women being part of our daily lives a cause for concern? Should we fear the perfecting of machines as Norbert Wiener predicted? What are the consequences of fabricating personalised humans? Will these gynoids relegate us to the status of sub-humans overtaken by technology? 

Predictably, this artwork showcases Wiener's cybernetics theory, especially his fear of machines taking over the control of life from humans. The aim was to make the visitor think about these questions and even feel uncomfortable. In this, the artwork was an unqualified success!
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  • Gynoids to suit all masculine tastes!
In the exhibition, the visitor becomes a customer in this fictitious shop. S/he would have the to make their own custom-made gynoid. The shop-owners offered many customisation criteria: the policy was to offer a diverse range of choices to meet customer requirements. Customers people could choose the eye colour, hair colour, skin tone, the personality of the gynoid and its emotional leanings. All the criteria selected by the customer are recorded on a digital tablet and registered at the checkout.
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2021 Vintage

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  • Home
  • About
  • Teaching
    • Arts-informed pedagogy
    • Learning by drawing
    • From drawing to storytelling
    • Total Arts exhibition >
      • 2018 Vintage >
        • Tree of life
        • Rwandan Genocide
        • Maya
        • Icarus
        • Molecules
        • Doctor
      • 2019 Vintage >
        • Zone 51
        • The Fire At The Lubrizol Factory In Rouen
        • The Myth of the Martians
        • Robot
        • Insubmersible Titanic
      • 2020 Systemic racism & Covid19 >
        • Hashtag power BLM
        • Mythomaniavirus
        • Boycott Power
        • Wheels of systemic racism
        • COVID-19 and the media
        • The systemic loops of systemic racism
      • 2021 Vintage >
        • Women's rights
        • The Truth Party
        • The Great Plague
        • Gynoids
        • Ant colony
        • Cyber TikTok
    • Information Visualisation >
      • Infoviz 2019
      • Infoviz 2020
      • Infoviz 2021
  • Research
    • Publications
    • Conferences >
      • DOCAM 2019
      • Big Data 2016
      • BOLD 2014
      • EPICIC 2011
  • Data the Data
    • Data week
    • Hackathon
    • Atelier dat'accelere
  • Contact
  • Antland