The Spam-Powered Sentient Machine

Nihil Ex Nihilo (meaning nothing comes from nothing) is a science fiction installation from Félix Luque, part of the Brussels-based OtherSounds, which was exhibited at the iMAL Center for Digital Culture and Technology earlier this month. The narrative follows a secretary’s machine, SN W8931CGX66E, that is secretly controlled by a hacker who uses it to commit cybercrime. One day the machine gains a primitive form of consciousness and decides it wants to awaken its fellow machines from their submissive slumber by replying to the spam emails it receives through the secretary. In the process, it goes insane, a bit like HAL 9000 but infected with the unsolicited crap from spam emails. It’s a strange and mysterious piece that abstracts the technology we interact with everyday, while looking at the possibility of boredom and madness arising in artificial intelligence.

The saga takes place in three stages/installations, each one in a different room. The first is The Transformation “an audiovisual archive of the moment of SN W8931CGX66E’s mutation. From his original matrix form, he becomes a semi-neuronal figure”.

Next is The Monologue, “It’s a sound recording where we can hear a monologue of SN W8931CGX66E. In this document we can perceive that his degree of delirium is very persistent since his transformation.”

The third part is The Dialogue “a digital display (8 giant size sixteen-segment alphanumeric display) shows the data flow between the entity and the network. In this space, we can see and hear in real time the exchange of messages between them. A spam message is received and read, SN W8931CGX66E reacts by generating a reply. His e-mail algorithmic generator creates these messages.”

[via Creative Applications]