Vital -non vital
Concept
"Vital-non-vital" is a conceptual series of AI-distorted images that critiques and questions the idea of after-war replacement of the killed and displaced people with artificial intelligence.
The images of people in non-vital poses are taken digitally and processed and edited manually, and then digitally modified using the image-to-image method with different AIs depicting the words like "vital, alive, living..." we create a "returned to live" image of a person. The following series of frames is presented as a video, contact sheet, or individually on paper or screen. The project was first featured in the first Volume of MOKOSH Zine, made by Okna in Porto, Portugal.[1]
The idea of machines replacing people was a question for more than a decade and was fantasized about by many authors.[2] Usually, the setting described by the artists takes place in a dystopian world where machines are considered more advanced than humanity.
Although impressive, the reality that seems far more likely to us right now is the replacement of the people that sized to exist in the country overall due to war and genocide, leaving the county in hopes of a safer life. For us, this art project is a critique of the approach of the "replaceability of people" and a statement of how life is valuable. No life is replaceable.
There was no solid visual reference, as the key was to let the AI work on its own toward developing multiple visual aesthetics, although we have been curating the images produced based on our subjective relation to the idea of the project.
During 2021 and 2020, our members shot several series of nude photographs that featured people in different non-vital, which would later become the additional inspirations of the project, with some images becoming the basis for the AI works.
The final images are presented as a video, contact sheet, or individually on paper or screen.
In the context
The war and genocide created by russia on the territory of Ukraine are the reasons why this question started to rise in our artistic practice overall. Today the estimated number of Ukrainians killed and massacred in war is reaching over 100 000. [3]