The Eternal Now Engine

The exhibition Extensions of Self (Francisco Carolinum Linz), curated by Eva Fischer and designed by Maria Rudakova, explores new approaches to coping with the Anthropocene through exchange with artificial intelligence.

Commissioned by the Francisco Carolinum Linz Museum, this work cites and juxtaposes Lynn Hershman Leeson's 2014 multimedia installation "The Infinity Engine" with current tendencies of AI-generated and AI-interpreted art.

Conceptually, The Eternal Now Engine takes the underpinnings of "The Infinity Engine" and turns them upside down through a framing of eternalism: the spectator is cast into the role of an observer outside of time while multiple alternative presences unfold at once.

Starting from a seed image, AI enters a resonating cycle of describing and creating the same setting repeatedly, resulting in endless permutations of scenery. As a side effect, a quasi-evolutional recursive process takes place, slowly carving out archetypes buried in the model's subsymbolic structures.

Rendered images were morphed and joined into four videos. They then served as prompts to compose four pieces of binaural electroacoustic music reflecting the mood and progression of each image sequence.

a large screen at an exhibition