MACHINE RELICS
Year
2024
Type
Print
Size
A3
The project seeks to excavate the archaeological traces of artificial intelligence civilizations that have yet to emerge. In this endeavor, technological storage media such as tapes, hard drives, and floppy disks are regarded as a new form of cultural DNA. These media are not merely containers for data but serve as carriers of an emerging civilization. These material storage devices, while extensions of human civilization, also herald the advent of an entirely new, non-human cultural paradigm.
By juxtaposing and reassembling these digital storage media with traditional human cultural artifacts—organs, mechanical devices, and architectural remnants—the work reveals a critical epistemological question: in the operation of technological infrastructure, is it the cultural logic of humanity that persists, or is an entirely new, non-human cognitive framework taking shape? These seemingly neutral storage devices may, in fact, be incubating a form of civilization that we have yet to fully comprehend
When we conceive of artificial intelligence as an entity requiring a "cultural heritage," we are fundamentally challenging the epistemological stance of anthropocentrism. Is the "memory" of AI merely a digital replication of human experience? Must its "history" inherently follow humanity's linear conception of time? Could its "culture" transcend the symbolic systems known to humankind? These questions extend beyond technology itself, probing deeply into how we understand and define the concept of "civilization."
Through this archaeological imagination, the project seeks to uncover the obscured evolutionary trajectories of civilization underlying technological progress. In this process, storage devices cease to be mere technological artifacts and become a new type of cultural fossil, documenting the emergence of a possible non-human civilization.