THE VALIDATION JUNKY

THE VALIDATION JUNKY takes a critical look at the entangled relationships between social media, emerging technologies and the human body.

April 2023, Statista recorded that 60% of the world's population have active social media accounts, giving rise to a globally interlinked, constantly changing network of billions of highly personalised, multilayered images of the self. At the same time, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and genetic engineering are starting to transform society and the evolution of the human body. Led by multinational corporations, these new developments are far outpacing legislation.

THE VALIDATION JUNKY, a collaboration between PRAKSIS and RAM Galleri, brings together ambitious new artworks and research by British post-disciplinary artist/designer Adam Peacock. At the front of RAM gallery, drawings and video works by Peacock speculatively map possible futures of a technologically enabled human evolution, while the rear gallery showcases a major body of research generated by Peacock in Oslo during his September 2021 PRAKSIS residency Perfection / Speculation. Peacock’s research features thought-provoking video interviews between the artist and four leading protagonists in the fields of new technology, identity, the body and the perception of self: author of The Transhuman Manifesto Natasha Vita-More, Professor in the History and Theory of Architecture at MIT Mark Jarzombek; Presidential Professor at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, Lev Manovich; and science-fiction artist, filmmaker, inventor and body architect Lucy McRae.

Residency partners The Vigeland Museum and queer live events coordinators Karmaklubb* helped shape this research. Peacock’s interviews are staged within the Museum’s dramatic display of works by Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943), reminding that lived experience for both normative and non-normative bodies is modelled by body cultures of the past as well as present and future technologies such as social media, AI and CRISPR/Cas9. The interview questions were developed by Peacock and his fellow Perfection / Speculation residents: Marte Aas, Jonathan Armour, Louis Alderson-Bythell, Trinley Dorje, Erika Stöckel, and Bobby Yu Shuk Pui.

Keywords - Artificial Intelligence, Bio-Technology, CRISPR-Cas9, Gene Editing, Metaverse, New Media, Post-Ontology, Transhumanism

THE VALIDATION JUNKY Installation Ram Galleri Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit - Peacock/RAM

VALIDERINGSØPPELET [detail]
Digitally-drawn giclee print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Installation of nine frames, 332(h) x 242 (w)cm
1 of 1. Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit - Peacock/RAM

VALIDERINGSØPPELET [detail]
Digitally-drawn giclee print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Installation of nine frames, 332(h) x 242 (w)cm
1 of 1. Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit - Peacock/RAM

VALIDERINGSØPPELET [detail]

Digitally-drawn giclee print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Installation of nine frames, 332(h) x 242 (w)cm
1 of 1. Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit - Peacock/RAM

PERFECTION / SPECULATION IDENTITY MAP
Double Sided A1 Explorer Map
Folding into 297 (h) x 105 (w) Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit - Peacock/RAM

“In psychological terms beauty is homoeostasis, so I would never want to be a perfect person or perfect being because if so, then I’d have no place to go.”

Natasha Vita-More (USA) is the Executive Director of Humanity+ Inc., Founder of H+ Lab, Author of The Transhumanist Manifesto, and designer of Primo Posthuman.

“However, maybe we shouldn’t blame the algorithms, because people basically copy each other, don’t they? Very few people are original; maybe one in a million. Most people don’t have time to carve out their own path, or they aren’t brave enough to think for themselves— so they copy one other.”

Lev Manovich (RU) is the Presidential Professor at the Graduate Centre, City University of New York (CUNY), and Founder and Director of the Cultural Analytics Lab

WE ARE WHAT THE INTERNET MAKES US - I, II, IV
4k Digital Sculpture Moving Image 10 mins
1 of 5. London, 2023
Photo Credit -PAH foto/Peacock/RAM

PERFECTION / SPECULATION at The Vigeland Museum
Multi-Channel Moving Image 15:00 Mins, Oslo 2023

WE ARE WHAT THE INTERNET MAKES US

We Are What The Internet Makes Us is an installation of five digital sculptures, each blinking, breathing and twitching. Over ten minutes, each character slowly morphs into five different ideological representations of an idealised or ‘perfected’ self in an experimental format of sculptural digital bodybuilding.

Developed with human models, the five characters are modified in post-production, looking directly into the camera and into your eyes, playing into Masahiro Mori’s psychological construct of The Uncanny Valley - the moment between your brain’s perception of a healthy human and a robot. We Are What The Internet Makes Us asks a series of questions; Who might you be if you could design yourself in any way imaginable? How is new media affecting how we perceive ourselves, and what role do society and technology play in self-mediation?

Keywords - Computer Science, Consumer Psychology, Cybernetics, Digital Bodybuilding, Digital Sculpture, Fashion Silhouette, Fine-Art, Human-Computer Interaction, Identity Design, Moving Image, New Media, Photography, Post-Humanism, Semiotics, Web3

AN ONTOLOGY FOR A FRAGILE MALE EGO

An Ontology for A Fragile Male Ego is an ongoing series of large-format illustrations that imagine the connections behind male identity expression within an infinitely complex new media age.

Building on architectural historian Mark Jarzombek’s ‘Digital Stockholm Syndrome in the Post-Ontological Age’, in which he rethinks the philosophical and anthropological basis of our ontology, the drawing series has been developed by creating two-dimensional visualisations from building a three-dimensional sculpture of a human body and brain connected to a smartphone. The drawings act as open worksheets as communication tools between computer scientists, anthropologists, AI specialists, and philosophers on the factors at play within the definition of self and develop a language to investigate the psychology of the ego and the mechanisms of testosterone on cognitive functions and identity expression for contemporary male identity.

Keywords - Artificial Intelligence, Body-Architecture, Cognition, Computer Science, Consumer Psychology, Cybernetics, Digital- Matter, Fashion Identity, Fine-Art, Human-Computer Interaction, Identity Systems, New Media, Ontology, Parametricism, Post-Humanism, Psychology, Web3

An Ontology for a Fragile Male Ego #3
Digitally-drawn, hand finished giclee print, pencil & oil paint
127(h)x191(w)cm

An Ontology for a Fragile Male Ego #3 (detail)
Digitally-drawn, hand finished giclee print, pencil & oil paint
127(h)x191(w)cm

An Ontology for a Fragile Male Ego #2
Digitally-drawn, hand finished giclee print, pencil & oil paint
127(h)x191(w)cm

An Ontology for a Fragile Male Ego #2
Digitally-drawn, hand finished giclee print, pencil & oil paint
127(h)x191(w)cm

PERFECTION / SPECULATION is a research and practice-based investigation into genes, memes and the modifiable human body.

Developed with Norwegian arts and cultural catalyst PRAKSIS, the project is supported by a dynamic relationship between its partners: The Vigeland Museum and the nomadic queer club concept and conversational platform Karmaklubb*. Using the Genetics Gym project (2016-20) as a thematic reference, the project focuses on developing sculptural modifications of Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland’s work (1869-1943) as a centrepiece to investigate past and future constructions of gender, race, sexuality, age, body politics, and the notion of the ideal human. The project featured a party, exhibition, and talk series at the Vigeland Museum, exhibiting large format video and audio pieces projected against the internal courtyard over a curated evening of conversations and performances exploring research around genes, memes, and the modifiable body (2021).

In the summer of 2023, the project culminated in a four-part interview and research document with leading protagonists in the fields of new technology, identity, the body and the perception of self. Together, they provide a kaleidoscopic view of the impacts of new technologies on issues of identity and the human body. They variously reflect on the ways that algorithm-driven trends shape senses of (embodied) selfhood and desires relating to body image. Also under consideration are the ethical implications that arise when bio-technologies, perceptions and constructions of self, body modification and big data collide.

Keywords - Artificial Intelligence, Bioethics, Computer Science, Consumer Psychology, CRISPR-Cas9, Cultural Analytics, Cybernetics, Digital-Matter, Fashion Identity, Fine-Art, Generative-Art, Genetics, Human-Computer Interaction, Localised Culture, Metaverse, New Media, Ontologies, Post-Humanism, Sculpture, Soft-Materiality, Web3

Selection from,
‘Perfection / Speculation Clash’,
Made by P/S Film Clash Group,
Moving Image, 14 mins, 2023

PERFECTION / SPECULATION Explorer, Future Body Prototype

Made by PERFECTION / SPECULATION Clash Group led by Adam Peacock; Marte Aas, Jonathan Armour, Louis Alderson-Bythell, Trinley Dorje, Erika Stöckel, and Bobby Yu Shuk Pu.

Available in PDF and Limited Edition A1 Print. Oslo 2023

Available to read here on Issuu

PERFECTION / SPECULATION Explorer, Research Output

Made by PERFECTION / SPECULATION Clash Group led by Adam Peacock; Marte Aas, Jonathan Armour, Louis Alderson-Bythell, Trinley Dorje, Erika Stöckel, and Bobby Yu Shuk Pu.

Available in PDF and Limited Edition A1 Print. Oslo 2023

Available to read here on Issuu

PERFECTION / SPECULATION Explorer, Research Output (Folded)

Made by PERFECTION / SPECULATION Clash Group led by Adam Peacock; Marte Aas, Jonathan Armour, Louis Alderson-Bythell, Trinley Dorje, Erika Stöckel, and Bobby Yu Shuk Pu.

Available in PDF and Limited Edition A1 Print. Oslo 2023

Available to read here on Issuu

Adam Peacock x PRAKSIS x Vigeland Museum x Karmaklubb*,
‘Perfection/Speculation’

PERFECTION/ SPECULATION
THE CONVERSATION

Four interviews: Natasha Vita-More, author of The Transhuman Manifesto; Mark Jarzombek, Professor of History and Theory of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); artist and digital culture theorist Lev Manovich, and science-fiction artist, filmmaker, inventor and body architect, Lucy McRae.  

Vita-More speaks with Peacock about concepts of beauty, the role of ego and the ethics of striving to overcome ageing. Jarzombek discusses the impacts of AI and design technology on perceptions of self, while delivering some tough correctives on questions of state and corporate surveillance and the struggle of ethics to keep pace with market-driven bio-technologies and data access. Manovich reflects on issues of autonomy and originality in relation to social media and the algorithmic mining of big data, and offers important contextual reflections on the history and evolution of information technologies and cultural analytics. McRae discusses what it means to be “human” in a science- and technology-driven world, and advocates for the role of art as a catalyst for experimental, open-ended approaches to the development of knowledge in this area.

A dedicated project website is available here

Genetics Gym is a speculative design project exploring how genetic technology and new media shape perceptions of beauty and identity. The project equates ‘genetic strength’ with training machines to perceive attractiveness online, through five fictional body-customisation brands.

The Genetics Gym is a speculative design provocation that explores the future of identity optimisation through emerging genetic technologies, media aesthetics, and body politics in an age of self-design. Developed as part of the Design Residency at the Fashion Space Gallery at London College of Fashion, UAL, the project draws from fashion theory to examine how digital media reshapes silhouette, shifting the act of ‘fashioning’ the body into new, algorithmically governed terrains. Following its initial exhibition, the project expanded into a wider programme of international exhibitions, interdisciplinary collaborations, and ongoing research exploring how biotechnology, media infrastructures, and identity intersect in both speculative and applied design contexts.

Created in collaboration with UCL’s Human Genetics and Embryology department, London College of Fashion’s Digital Anthropology Lab, and the Applied Psychology in Fashion department, the project comprises five fictional sub-brands that propose speculative regimes for enhancement. These include CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing and epigenetic interventions offering a customisable ‘menu’ of traits—from eye shape to muscle gain—prompting reflection on how ‘genetic strength’ is defined through algorithmic legibility and digital desirability.

As CRISPR-Cas9 technology moves closer to real-world application, The Genetics Gym raises urgent questions around access, ethics, and control. It critiques how algorithms are trained to recognise and reproduce culturally biased ideals of beauty, and the consequences of encoding these into our biological futures. Through a sculptural installation, video, graphic illustrations, research documents and a techno-soundtrack, the project presents a critical, unsettling vision of a future in which fashioned bodies are curated, commodified, and computationally scored.

Keywords - Artificial Intelligence, Bioethics, Computer Science, Consumer Psychology, CRISPR-Cas9, Cultural Analytics, Fashion Futures, Fashion Identity, Fashion Silhouette, Fine Art, Genetics, Identity Systems, Modifiable Bodies, New Media, Ontologies, Post-Humanism, Sculpture, Web3

Illustration: Brain-Body-Society, Character no5