Apperception #97

2024

Plastic recycling/Bioart

The project explores perception as a constructor of reality, where a plastic self-portrait — processed by neural networks and 3D-printed from recycled materials — exists in symbiosis with living plants. This hybrid form questions the boundaries between human and natural: what dominates — humans in a plant environment or nature encapsulated within anthropogenic matter? The answer depends on the viewer’s perspective, highlighting the subjectivity of all perception. The artist invites us to contemplate how autonomous our thoughts truly are versus how much they’re dictated by external influences, transforming the object into a mirror for self-reflection.

Technically, the work combines digital and analog elements: AI algorithms distort the self-portrait, symbolizing the 'filters' of consciousness, while recycled plastic references resource cyclicity and ecological responsibility. The living plants integrated into the composition contrast with artificial materials yet engage in dialogue with them, creating a tense equilibrium. This contrast reveals the duality of human perception — between control and dependence, between creation and consumption.

Philosophically, the project addresses ecology by reimagining waste as artistic material, while also exploring identity in the AI era, where technologies become co-authors of self-representation. The interactivity lies in viewer reflection: changing perspectives alter the object’s meaning, exposing the fragility of boundaries between internal and external. 'Turn your gaze inward: are these thoughts growing within you, or seeds planted from outside? ' — this question becomes the work’s key, offering not an answer but an opportunity for dialogue with oneself.