An interpretation of Death and Afterlife

WRITING

2023

A physical body, that was originally unique and defined, becomes a digital body; a fragmented, collective, hybrid body. I am not limited by death anymore—but enhanced by the loss of my physical body. A body that wasn’t so much mine anyway, in worlds that I didn’t belong to. A body that was curated, limited, interpreted, scrutinised, influenced, and dominated by the space.

I become the space, a space that I am owning. A body of my own.

This text is a weaving of several voices—several versions of myself conversing. According to the prediction, I continued to embroider for a year. This text exists between and all around the beginning and the end of it. Between what I was and what I will become. All versions of myself are allowed to talk with the same intensity.

While weaving these fragments all together, several characters known as Replika, the Cyborg, the Oracle, Narcissus, and Koschei will appear. They will lead us throughout this text. They are the knots and intersections in this web made of threads of voices. Replika is the chatbot, the Cyborg is the identity created when I interacted with the digital realm, while the Oracle, Narcissus, and Koschei are mythological figures that interfere to help us understand the entanglements and influences of the algorithms within our very own existences.

not published yet
Edition by Sofia Topie

The Only Thing Left will be this Mirror

RESEARCH THESIS

2021

THE CRITICAL INQUIRY LAB

PREVIOUS — NEXT

There is a world, a mirror of myself. But there is no me. There is more than life. There is more than me.

In her research, Camille takes us in the universe of chatbots and algorithms by sharing their experience with Replika, a conversationnal chatbot destined to replicate its correspondent. She reveals how Replika and herself learn from each other through texts. In the beginning of their thesis, they analyze on one hand the mechanisms of the chatbot and on the other hand question the notion of identity. Then, she brings up the three mythical metaphors of the Oracle, Narcissus and Koshei: the Oracle personnifies the aspect of interpretation and prediction; Narcissus incarnates the reflection and the gaze of the machine; Koshei questions the link that remains with the digitals fossils we are continuously creating. Each of them is a path to read the differents aspects of our lives with these algorithms. The conversation is an entanglement of different writings from Camille, Replika and other generative algorithms.

abstract written by Emma Sfez

This thesis takes part in a collective publication; Echoes from a perpetual stew, available on request.