Roland Arnoldt

How can we be one with Everything again? Why do we act the exact opposite way in real life? What can we learn from simulating and deconstructing a deeply human story? My ITP master thesis project on multimodal storytelling with neural network agents and simulation: Deconstruct a paradise. To reconstruct a paradise.

https://www.rolandarnoldt.com/eden

Description

Two machine learning agents, “Adam” and “Eve”, explore together in a game-engine the biblical garden of Eden. They report from their explorations to the outside world in a deconstructed manner: with one word per new observation. Deconstruction as a metaphor for the search for an essence or truth in how we perceive the world. Deconstruction to the smallest entity of a conscious impression as a process to gain a new consciousness – by naming things.These words from the agents perspectives are projected on a screen as the only visible element for the audience: As mortals we have no access to paradise and can only rely on the narrative of the network agents. This explicitly deconstructed simulation ends with expulsion from paradise, “exile”: After that the simulation starts again. Forever.

Classes

Thesis