|
THE BODY & THE UNPREDICTABILITY OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS Within this environment of immersion where the body is closed, the body experiments with states of unpredictability originating from concrete experiences mediated by technology. The interfaces of interactive systems transform the participants' movements into information. In this installation, the computer follows an architecture that determines their sequence and duration. In TRANS-E, My Body, My Blood, the time, place, and number of people all determine what images are projected onto the big screen at the back of the room. The NN receives the body signals and determines what mutations will occur within the room. The bodies respond to a sequence of actions that stimulates the environment during certain levels that are out of control. The body acts, and the consciousness of the actions come back in order for the body to not be in total control of the environment. Different from other interactive works, the entire system is the response, and functions according to free choice. The bodies converse with the emptiness of the environment, and the computer both combines and projects images and sounds gathered from a database. The NNs are mathematical models with the capacity to manage data and simulate how the human brain functions. Although they are quite limited, they develop several functions to learn to recognize data. THE ENVIRONMENT'S CAPACITY FOR REGENERATION The main characteristic of NNs is their capacity to decide, learn, and return the proposed problem. The NN obtains properties similar to an auto-organism that are related to certain characteristics of the NN and its capacity to adapt to the conditions of the environment in which it is installed. Within these conditions, it is a fact that the NN is a system open to transformations in the course of its function; the behavior it adapts as an agent that acts and adapts to the conditions of the environment; by the adaptability that gives the environment a certain intelligence in relation to control system/environment. The evaluation of the control system is centered on qualities such as the convergence of the desired solution and the ability to repeat the performance with relation to the same task. The NN works with genetic algorithms. During its functioning, a given input can generate a different output. The environment is allowed to live in emergency states. Within this environment, which is an auto-organism, we can verify the characteristics of NNs in their capacity to adapt themselves to environmental conditions. In this way, the NN uses an algorithm called "back-propagation," developed by the answers obtained in the functioning of the system as activated by the participants. The sequences of back-propagations become elements that stimulate people to reach new states of propagation of live consciousness related to the interactive digital technologies. When the system of adaptive control is functioning, the NN continuously measures the state of the environment where they are working, comparing it to the objective of control, and uses the verified difference to adjust system parameters in order to guarantee that its own performance can be maintained independently of environmental changes. The adaptive control system can continually evaluate its own performance and modify, if deemed necessary, its own parameters. The adaptive behavior evaluates and responds to the function of the system as a whole. Consequently, the NN has characteristics of self-organization, causing the environment to live, die, and regenerate. The NN manifests its capability of self-regeneration through the back-propagation algorithm that organizes the NN as an amalgamated structure. This method of programming enables a limit of error similar to the physiological human system, which would not be possible with a traditional program because traditional methods are mathematically exact in their solutions. With TRANS-E, My Body, My Blood, I want to offer poetic moments of a metaphoric trance through interactive systems. According to Edmond Couchot, the trance I propose is to transform "information that happens in real time, related to the speed of the computer and to the efficiency of the algorithms, giving the participant the impression of interacting immediately and without intermediaries - without media - interacting with the images and sounds produced by the devices. This is the reason of the multi-sensorial and entrancing experience." Translated from Portuguese by Milton H. Bentancor. [The concept of interaction is critical to Diana Domingues' installation, TRANS-E, My Body, My Blood, and also to her theoretical concepts of technology and art in general. Please read PART 3 for more information on the interaction between technology, art, and the participant.]
|
