The starting point for this experimental video is the question of what happens when human experience becomes increasingly structured by algorithms. An ever-faster-moving world passes us by, like the landscape during a car journey. The interpretation of this world is increasingly placed in the hands of non-human systems, until reality itself becomes a blurred and unfocused projection. Reality and algorithmic interpretation increasingly overlap.
This data logic has layers that are meant to remain hidden. Places of storage, control, archiving. Physical and symbolic spaces where power is concentrated. People who descend into these spaces seem like seekers trying to understand the origins of a technology that has long since penetrated all facets of our lives. The descent into the basement is therefore not a simple metaphorical step, but a clearly political one: it leads to where the architectures of algorithmic power are negotiated. It leads to spaces that attempt to evade state control and public responsibility, while at the same time transforming the lives of entire societies.
These architectures appear increasingly opaque and self-contained, like a door that closes what should actually be open. This raises the question: who controls whom? Are we humans the ones at the helm, or have we long since become part of a mechanism whose doors have already closed behind us without us even noticing?
The video puts forward the thesis that we are standing at a historic threshold where it is not machines that are becoming human, but humans who are integrating themselves into structures that no longer recognise human standards.
Artificial intelligence is therefore not merely a neutral technology, but rather a political space in which questions of responsibility, freedom, autonomy and power are being renegotiated. How can we prevent artificial intelligence from becoming the only space in which the future is still conceived?
- Duration: 0:03:25
- Collections: algorithmic shadows