Sophie Dumaresq
They/She
Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours)
Sophie Dumaresq, Press X to…(knife), 2023. Mixed media animatronic computer monitor. Press X to… is a series of still photographic images, captured digitally and staged physically to be then translated through varying degrees of mixed media and materials. Created as part of research into machine learning models behind artificially intelligent generative apps and whether it is possible to create a truly empathetic model of artificial intelligence. The work and research was spurred by the debate within the computer sciences against the rise of the “one model to rule them all” approach to machine learning and artificial intelligence, 60 x 55 x 35 cm
Photographer: Brenton McGeachie
The body of work, Bed time stories for tired bots, is a material and aesthetic investigation into the Comic Sublime, exploring what it is to share joy, love, laugh and communicate in a universe filled with beings whose brains, existence and or bodies are built inherently differently to that of your own. Many works feature an absurd binary of characters; a cow and a shark, coming from the colloquial saying that “you are more likely to be killed by a cow than a shark”. I explore this premise, instead by investigating which one would be more likely to laugh at a joke.
The cow and the shark act as binary figures on many levels including the differences in their environmental needs and social behaviours, as grazing herd animals vs solitary predators. Without the intervention of humans they would have no reason to interact or become aware of one another. The robot Stardust merges these binaries through the materiality and aesthetics of its body, created from recycled ocean plastics, space junk, human hair and open-source technology.