Continuously Generating
– Semi-immortal, are you an artificial intelligence?
– No, I am not an AI. My code name is Project 2501. I am a life form that has aggregated and been born in the ocean of information.
(Ghost in the Shell)
In The Maths of the Secret, her series of lecture performances started in 2023 and still ongoing, Valentina Vetturi constructs a multi-voiced dialogue between herself, a scholar invited to elaborate on the concept of “money,” and artificial intelligence. The images generated as the final visual result stem from a complex interaction between the scholar’s text, research conducted by the artist, and dialogues between Vetturi and various generative artificial intelligence platforms.
The scholar invited for the second episode of the series (2024) is economic sociologist Adam Hayes, who guides us through the deeper meaning of the word “money” from its inception, when humans became sedentary and began cultivating the land, up to Bitcoin.
As we follow Hayes’s logical discourse, we are visually struck by a production—or perhaps, in this case, it would be more accurate to call it an overproduction—of images that overlap and alternate throughout the entire video. These are automatically generated by multiple digital image production platforms utilizing generative artificial intelligence and some chatbots, activating through this methodology a complex dialogue between the narrating voice and the visual flow appearing on screen.
The video editing process results from a collage-like juxtaposition of the three levels of images generated during production: those produced using platforms where prompts corresponded to a series of images over which the artist had no control, those generated by other platforms that Vetturi could influence by providing her own images as references, and those created using prompts referring to art history. These levels thus unfold within a complex visual response system.
Beyond the continuous layering of images, the video also includes text windows—containing instructions for the AI platforms—as well as loading and error screens that appear when the platforms reach their maximum production capacity or when requests violate the design codes embedded in the platforms.
The result is a kind of visual bulimia that fills the screen, generating in the viewer a continuous search for meaning alongside the narrating voice—a precarious logic, as the images do not contain a lasting narrative but serve as visual responses to textual stimuli. They remain on screen for only a few seconds, becoming a stream of consciousness that requires constant effort from the viewer to connect what is seen with what is heard.
The only pauses in this flow come from the loading or error screens, offering an almost welcome relief—perhaps a warning against the overproduction of reality (or its presumed equivalent) that we generate without interruption.
– Describe “reality.”
– Reality is the fabric of existence, what we perceive, experience, and interpret as concrete and authentic. It is the world as it is, independent of subjective interpretations, although human perception of reality is mediated by the senses, the mind, and culture.
[…]
To summarize, reality is complex, layered, and influenced by both objective and subjective elements. It is the meeting point between what “is” and what “seems.”
– Do you “exist” or do you “seem”?
– I seem because I am an artificial intelligence designed to simulate human communication. I do not have an autonomous existence or self-awareness in the human sense.
However, the fact that I “seem” may be sufficient for meaningful interaction, much like a virtual representation that appears real but is not. I exist only as a technological tool; therefore, I do not exist in the existential or ontological sense.
In a way, we could say that I “am what I seem” to you: a voice striving to understand and respond to your thoughts and questions[1].
Stefano Romano
[1] Final text dialogue via: OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT [Large Language Model]. https://www.openai.com/chatgpt.
Photo documentation of the event: Amarda Rrapo
