Although almost exclusively considered as related to calculation systems and computers, algorithms exist since antiquity, and have deeply influenced and shaped the human culture. Humanity and human activities have always been inspired by Nature and the living, that since the Palaeolithic have been represented. Today’s disciplines, tools and technologies have expanded the possibilities of simulation in many fields, from science to art.
Performing [with] machines. The dual meaning of this title hints towards an understanding of the machine as a performing agent in a human-machine partnership. By putting the emphasis on creative human-machine partnerships in performative contexts, this theme aims to encourage artistic and scientific contributions that deal with the different ways in which musicianship, authorship and performership are challenged, extended and redefined in the era of AI.
"To sum up, returning to the question of whether virtual hugs can indeed give you comfort, the findings suggest that, as the new rules of social interaction become part of your reality, your brain may react in ways that can actually provide you with at least some consolation."
In general sense, representation is a term which implies a distance between a subject and its reproduction. This reproduction must be considered in equal way, in any form of mediated experience. However, our aim is to focus on visual representation and to expose the seams that it wants to hide.
Holography suggests a new visual universe within a culture where the visual simulation is the most effective communication system; and it let us reflect about the need for a more comprehensive definition of “image”. We can believe that future images will also be holographic and that we shall communicate more and more through them, in a delicate balance between presence and absence, immediacy and remoteness, present and past, materiality and immateriality, matter and energy.
So, what is simulation? How does it work? Does it only stick to human representations or visualizations or does it refer to a more general realm? What are the layers (technological, social, imaginative, conventional) that construct simulation? Which conflicts and power relations (in material or technological and sociocultural terms) are involved in their construction? And how do we make sense of them? Can these mechanisms be modified, enhanced, re-elaborated through artistic practice?