Tulpamancer

Tulpamancer is a machine learning VR installation that shapes a dreamlike, immersive encounter with the memories and possible futures of each participant. Sitting down at a computer terminal that had been sitting forgotten in a warehouse since 1989, participants first encounter the tulpa through a series of questions about their own lives. They are then invited to meet in a world prepared uniquely for them. Participants put on a VR headset and are led on a journey by their tulpa through a series of uniquely generated virtual scenes that invoke and question the memories of their own past and their potential fates. Ultimately, every interaction produces a unique work that is deleted at the conclusion of its viewing, left only to resonate in the minds of each participant.

What does it mean to share your life with a machine? The tulpa—an idea rooted in Tibetan Buddhism but popularized by the theosophical thinker Annie Bessant (1847-1933)— refers to the physical manifestation of thought through spiritual practice and intense concentration. A transformation in society now appears to loom with the emergence of AI, a technology that derives its power by concentrating intensely on enormous volumes of online text and images—the digital traces of our collective unconscious. The tulpa was a way of making sense of and providing alternative frames for modernity. This work thus provides participants an occasion to explore alternative histories and futures for AI.

PRODUCTION 1: Matthew Niederhauser, Marc Da Costa – Light In The Head
11238 – Brooklyn, USA
matthew@sensorium.works

PRODUCTION 2: Vallejo Gantner, Jazia Hammoudi, Prodromos Tsiavos - Onassis ONX Studio
645 5th Avenue
10022 - New York, USA
Tel. +1 212421 0456
Tel. +30 213 0178 288
admin@onx.studio
digital@onassis.org

PRESS OFFICE: Nate Rynaski - JCPR&C
USA
Tel. +1 4025477204
nate@jcpr-c.com