Levels of machine empathy are low, I frequently fail to recognise the strain I put on my laptop, overburdening it with applications and tabs it shouldn’t be simultaneously running. I rarely unload my phone until an application stops functioning due to insufficient memory. Despite their status as personal extension, tabula rasa and symbiote for my memory, I treat them as tools and struggle to realise their real cyborg relation.
Humanity isn’t only measured by how we treat or by what means we determine a human. More broadly it incorporates how we treat those beyond us, animal, mineral, vegetal and add to that machine. A 2018 study by the UK research organised Childwise found that 42% of children aged 9 - 16 accessed voice recognition gadgets at home (36% Siri; 20% Cortana; 15% Alexa; and 7% Google Assistant), warning that accustomization to issuing commands may seep into human to human interactions. Amazon’s Magic Wand software tries to curb this trend, using positive reinforcement to encourage polite manners.
Having spoken face-to-face with cutting edge AI, travelling the world to meet machines and their creators, Claire Jervert’s analogue and digital works are infused with a sensitivity and understanding of what the future of these communications may feel like. In a series of delicately rendered conté portraits, Jervert captures the likeness of BINA48 (sitting 10.2015) (2015), Androidol U (sitting 02.2018) (2018), and Philip K. Dick (sitting 03.2016 SXSW) (2016) giving each android subject an indistinguishable humanity. Drawn in a manner reminiscent of classical depictions of the human face, these portraits enter into a centuries long tradition of advancing recognition through the arts.
In the more recent single-channel video work A Visit with Bina (2020), incorporated into The Terminal (2021) to kaleidoscopic effect, Jervert situates Bina48 within a point-cloud map of her rural Vermont home. Away from public presentations, symposiums and technology expositions, Bina48 is more sympathetically contextualised by her everyday surroundings. The home feels modest and the arm chairs look comfortable, Bina48 wears a silk scarf, possibly dressed to greet guests or otherwise keen to look her best no matter the occasion. Finally in Bina48 (2021), shown here for the first time, Jervert presents a third representative form of Bina48, a 3D printed hand-polychromed bust that once again draws us back to traditional mediums and institutional modes of recognition. Strikingly similar to busts held in the collections of the V&A and Louvre, often replicated by the casting departments, this version of Bina48 immortalises her as a subject equitable to a religious icon.
Through her continued practice Jervert helps us step towards cognitive connections with our applications and hardware. Her treatment of the android’s she has dedicated herself to is wrought with tenderness, affection and intrigue, attributes that easily rub off.
Claire Jervert is a multidisciplinary artist examining the impact of new technologies, such as AI, VR and androids. Through her Android Portrait series, she has met with, interviewed and produced delicate portrayals of humanoid robots, subverting portraiture’s traditional mission of ennobling the human, whilst stirring contemplation of a possible future for humanity. Exhibitions include: Portrait of Zuck, Galerie Manqué, New York City (2020); Duty Free, isthisit?, London (2018); A View from the Cloud, Streaming Museum, United Nations Church Centre, New York City (2017); and Android Portraits, International Symposium of Electronic Art, Hong Kong (2016). She was a recipient of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Fellowship in 2009; and has carried out residencies with La Paternal Project Space in Buenos Aires and Newark New Media’s cWOW programme.
The Terminal: Human Shaped Whole
directed by: Jason Isolini
featuring: Bob Bicknell-Knight, Ian Bruner, Joshua Citarella, Jessica Evans, James Irwin, Claire Jervert, Kakia Konstantinaki, Angeline Meitzler, Erin Mitchell and Neale Willis
curated by: Off Site Project
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Claire Jervert .