TERMINUs

In some, if not all of my personal projects, i tried to explore fragments of the human condition and consciousness, presenting questions in an opportunity to connect with the insight of the ones who watch and put attention to what's beneath the art, this one wasn't a different project. At the beginning of 2022 i discovered the work from Tsutomu Nihei,  on one his manga titled "BLAME!", which changed the way i was approaching my biggest drive of living and it really took me into a place where i was questioning on how and where the creative ideas i have in my mind construct themselves, realizing that i was only an observant of something that surpasses my understanding of the self.

In one of the volumes of this manga, a character connects to something called "Netsphere", this explained from the fandom wiki it's a "hyper-evolved version of the Internet that was created by humans to solve all worldly problems. Ancient humans could interact with the Netsphere using a specific gene called the Net Terminal Gene and create anything they imagined in the real world from a digital template"; It was Tsutomu Nihei relating to the deep mindfullness space, the realm of Dreams or a physical dimension of what we call "Imagination" and how we use it in order to manifest this abstract ideas into the "real" world?. 

With this in mind, i began to further expand this question, to explore this dimension where all creative ideas exist and where we extract them or as David Lynch's put it we "Fish them", with a different point of view. To at some extend attempt to explain this, i started to revisit multiple authors, which created some core concepts that i used to create this project.

The Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung delved into the depths of the unconscious mind, uncovering archetypes, symbols, and collective wisdom that he believed can unlock the secrets of our psyche, piercing into a wellspring of creativity that lies dormant within us all. At the core of this exploration lies the concept of the unconscious mind, a reservoir of untapped potential where dreams, desires, and inspirations converge. In the realm of dreams, says Jung's, we discover portals to infinite possibilities, where also Aristotle's reflections on the nature of dreams converge with Jung's interpretation of this, as symbolic messages from the unconscious. Through the analysis of dreams, we gain insights into the hidden truths that shape our creative endeavors, guiding us towards a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Dreams serve as the bridge between conscious and unconscious realms, offering glimpses into the profound mysteries of the human psyche.

So how this relates with the title?, well as i previously exposed on Advent, exploring the emotional aspect of artificial intelligence and digital creation. Tools aren’t only objects for an specific function but a reflection of our internal search of solving problems and fundamental questions, and as a reflection of our inner selves, they also share an spiritual meaning beyond their makers. How Artificial Intelligence (AI) use the multi-layered database of information which has been linked up on it, it's quite similar as Jung's concept of the collective unconscious referring to "shared, inherited unconscious knowledge and experiences across generations, expressed through universal symbols and archetypes common to all human cultures. The collective unconscious consists of pre-existent forms, or archetypes, which can surface in consciousness in the form of dreams, visions, or feelings, and are expressed in our culture, art, religion, and symbolic experiences.", this relates closely on AI information feed, as the data doesn't come from an "experience", at the contrary, it comes from an external source that is pre-feeding it constantly. So, this "Netsphere" of information/data already available on the collective unconscious/database serves as a source of ideas which can be used and collected by whoever is connected to it?.

As i previously exposed, i personally think AI can relate closely to how our mind works, how from dreams and ideas we manifest affecting the physical dimension. We already seen multiple uses of AI along its short (or long?) surfacing, it's difficult to not start questioning ourselves, our nature and the similarities of something that only collectively can be explained and only throught questioning of what we already think we know, exploring new sources of knowledge and allowing ourselves to connect, we may able to do it.

Terminus serves as a proposal of conscious exploration, as the ending of a way of belief and the beginning of a persue that i'll be exploring on my upcoming projects.