Beyond Human: A Visual Discourse on Post-Transhumanism in Brushstrokes and Pixels

In the metamorphic epoch of technology, we have immersed ourselves in a digital biome- we are interconnected by algorithms and binary, and have created our own artifical digital ecosystem. Often, we are repulsed by the idea of the rapid incline of technology, how we believe we are so determined by it, no thanks to Black Mirror's technological dytopia highlighting our fears on the ethical implications of a bionic world.

Recognising the interconnectedness of everything, including the digital realm is very crucial to my art. The advancement of technology has led to the erosion of human interconnectedness and identity. Necessitating the forging of a new identity within the digital biome we created. So, here is my take on that (kind of like Wreck it Ralph 2, but on a heroic dose of acid). Perhaps it isn't as unnatural as I initially believed - we created it, so does that not give it license to be deemed organic? Is it not made up of patterns and metals and ions, and didn't human brains conjure up such unnatural ideas? (Though human minds also came up with pretty abhorrent concepts such as racism and drainer music)

I want to create a world for my art where this mode of self expression can cybernetically flourish. By no means am I necessarily the staunchest advocate for technological growth, I also feel it is scary, and it is so comfortable to remain abstinent to the thought of a futuristic world, and to cling to nostalgia of when things seemed to work at a slower pace. Exploring this fear feels like such a fascinating and gratifying process to me, transgressing what we percieve as natural and confronting you with uncomfortable and unsettling questions about what it means to be human.

A huge element of this feeling being so easy to identify with is my own neurodiverse POC queer experience. Feeling and being treated non human and an 'other' in social spaces. Finding refuge in robotic uncanny valley stares and absurd speech patterns, and consistently feeling like I am made up of mismatched components. There is always this feeling of being out of sync with everyone else. Socialising feels like I am trying to pass the Turing test. Within my own identity, aligning myself with something mechanical and otherworldly makes sense to me.

I used to condemn the rapid onset and radical use of technology, and reduce it as simply an extension of capitalism's innovation and how a rapidly advancing and over efficent world is what I previously deemed a capitalist dystopian hell scape. I always viewed it less as a Grimes-Detroit Become Human - Serial Experiment Lain meta way and more of that scene in cinematic masterpiece and social commentary film WALL-E (2008) where the humans had corrupted Earth with their hedonistic glutton and consumerism and now live a sedentary technology reliant lifestyle as lazy ambitionless human slugs on hoverboards. So, what changed?

I was at a trans-sonic sound bath hosted by artist Kiik Amor, and there were only a few of us, so it felt super intimate and we discussed the intersection of art with technology and AI for about an hour and a half and it illuminated me. I realised that I hadn't given technology enough credit as a possible artistic tool in my art previously. I used to view technology and AI as a threat to my Earthy core being, but now I am a self-described cyborg fae in my self-curated art world. We already carry these devices around with us all the time, and it is so normalised, I think in an essence we already are cyborg beings and this is my way of exploring that fear and oblivion through the innevitability of the techno-evolutionising world.

There is a co-evolution, a mutual influence with technology. The threads of post-modern society are woven with code. I want to explore how it is shaping the way we view 'the self' and consciousness as a whole. We determine eachother. It is a beautiful, breathing, and mechanical organism that lives in a co-evolving symbiosis. As we shape and determine eachother, I also acknowledge that rapid innovation of technology is a biproduct of capitalism, and that it is somewhat unnatural to advance so much- we should use technology as a tool to aid us. I believe it also fosters a hub of creativity and possibilities in the art world. It also makes us stop and ask ourselves how far can we take bio-encancements before we are completely robotic? What does it mean to be human, and how can we define consciousness?