From the depths of the cave to the depths of our brains, Hyperphantasia creates a space where 36,000 years of image technology meet; searching for the origin of images.
In the Palaeolithic era, people plunged into the depths and darkness of caves, seeking to inscribe the work of the human mind on the rock walls.
In 2022, computational sciences allow us to analyse large amounts of data and generate predictions.
Using a scientific database about the Chauvet Pont-d'Arc cave, an artificial neural network was trained to produce new images of prehistory in order to create the work. A video wall slowly comes to life, giving a glimpse of a "new" prehistory, of the parallel imaginations of our ancestors. In 2021, a CNES and ESA mission began studying the evolution of sleep in space. Encephalographic data recorded over several nights made it possible for the artist to work with dream signals from space.
These signals from the depths of our unconscious are embodied in 3D printed dream architectures. A landscape stemming from the mental images appears in the light of the video.
From generating new images of prehistory using machine-learning model to the extrusion of dream sculptures from space; we follow the birth of new images from the depths of our imaginations that will merge and synchronise.
This work was produced as part of the off-site residency of the Observatoire de l'Espace, the cultural laboratory of the CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales).
Justine Emard (born 1987) explores the new relationships that are developing between our lives and technology. Combining different image technologies, she situates her work in a flow combining robotics, neuroscience, organic life and artificial intelligence. In 2020, she was in residence at the ZKM, Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe and won the “IMAGE 3.0” national photographic commission organised by the CNAP in partnership with the Jeu de Paume, Paris. In 2022, she is in residence at the Observatoire de l’Espace, the cultural laboratory of the CNES.
