AUJIK

Supernova Solo Artist Spotlight

Digital Animism and a Post-Human Nirvana

By Barry Whittaker

In a time of increasing technological and cultural hybridization, human imagination has been primed to imagine the future of our species and planet in innumerable ways. With billionaires leading the way into space and colonizing Mars, the rise of artificial intelligence, and increasing battles over data and identity in digital space, how are we to imagine a future on Earth? Metabolist architecture, speculative designs, and dystopian robotic futures of film and anime have often hinted at what may lie ahead for our planet. Nature/technology collective AUJIK has established this arena as a site for exploration and world-building.

 As a self-described “nature/tech cult,” AUJIK has taken the ideas of evolution and technological progress to their logical extremes. Founded in Sweden, the Japanese-based group creates animated images of undulating organisms, clouds of seemingly sentient particles, and plant-like architecture set against serene landscapes and sprawling urban environments. A fusion of biological and mechanical forms is a repeated theme among many of the works. Scenes often reflect real locations while only hinting at a human presence in the space or its function. Others suggest the presence of entirely new lifeforms. 

Other artists have explored these ideas to varying ends. The Japanese artist Mariko Mori has imagined human/technology hybrids since the 1990s. Her video and sculptural works combine natural and biological themes with science fiction to create a vision of personal and spiritual transformation. Dutch studio Atelier Van Lieshout similarly explores biological forms and functions through the creation of objects and environments. Embracing identity as a creative element, American musician, bandleader, and futurist, Sun Ra created an interplanetary origin story as a foundation for his musical experimentation. As for architecture, the Metabolist movement of the 1960s provided a template for a modular and adaptable city. AUJIK synthesizes many of these ideas with elements of religion and emerging technologies into hybrid visions of possible futures to consider. 

 AUJIK’s animated works have appeared in Ars Electronica Animation Festival, SIGGRAPH Asia, the Japan Media Arts Festival, and have been featured in the 2016–1018 Supernova festivals. Denver Digerati’s Associate Curator, Barry Whittaker, spoke with Stefan Larsson about the ideas and influences in AUJIK’s work. 

Can you describe AUJIK and how it began? 

I used to work with several pseudonyms and fictional corporate identities in the early 2000. The core brand was called QNQ (pronounced kjounk and short for conquistador). It involved topics regarding postcolonialism, globalization, war, and some more subversive political ideas. This was before I started working with computer animation, and instead used installation, clothes, music, text, websites and images as expressions. I was influenced by writers and political activists such as Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Naomi Klein. Some examples of work  from this time was a fictional black metal band from Kongo, with 2 former child soldiers, a fictional South Korean doomsdays cult, a travel agency specializing in simulated Sniper vacations for families, and a conspiracy about the American cable channel Nickelodeon. I was also becoming more interested in future visions and AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) in particular, so I started this brand that was first called AIIK (short for Artificial Intelligence Katharsis) that eventually became AUJIK. Initially, I wanted to visualize these robotic bodies as crossbreeds with a symbiosis between synthetic and organic nature. Instead of being efficient machines, they were idle and didn’t serve any purpose. Aesthetically, they looked like a hybrid between a Star Wars stormtrooper and a body shape in a Francis Bacon painting; while gradually they became more pronounced, and with their own unique abilities. Since they are physically limited, they use their full computational capacity to develop their minds through the discovery of new realms of emotions and sensations. At first I wanted to make these artifacts, as I currently call them, into sculptures in a 1:1 scale (about the size of a human) and tried with various materials. I started using 3ds Max and made very simple models and renderings to get a better idea of shape and scale. Since it was so difficult to make sculpture versions, I instead started doing short animation, which I got more into, until it became the only tool I used.

Do you see AUJIK as an extension of yourself, as an individual artist, or something separate?

At first I tried to approach it as something separate from me, but realized that it’s actually very personal on several layers and I guess that’s the reason I continued. I more or less quit working with the other brands, while fully focusing and evolving AUJIK.

How has the work of AUJIK developed from its inception?

I think the fundamental idea is intact, while new outcomes emerged in various video projects. For the last 3-4 years I haven’t changed AUJIK that much, but between 2008 and 2016, it was the only thing I bothered about and had to dive deeper into 3D animation to learn new software and techniques. In 2011, I got a decent working grant for a short film project called: Cathexis that I worked on for a year. It was a collaboration with a Scottish electronic artist called Christ, and became a platform to grow other similar projects. After that I started collaborating more with musicians. 

Do these projects hint at a possible future or do they exist in some alternate reality?

It could be some sort of possible future. Perhaps an AI simulation for other AI’s to dwell in. Like an artificial utopia, but with humans excluded — even though there are humans in some of my videos — they are more like reflections of the synthetic entity creators, haunting them.

In Spatial Bodies and Spatial Bodies: Hong Kong & Shenzhen, you’ve modified the skylines of Osaka, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen. In others, like Ryoan-ji, you have modified a site over time. What draws you to develop a project around a specific location?

One aspect is future possibilities with AR (Augmented Reality) and how to digitally deconstruct place and material in the most convincing visual way. This includes the idea to share and modify these scenes, a bit like open source-code. As an example, a person could customize parts of New York City to something completely different and then invite other people to collaborate. I was extremely inspired by an American sci-fi writer called Vernor Vinge and how vividly he described future AR.

Another thing worth mentioning, is that with the Spatial Bodies videos, I imagined these enormous concrete cityscapes as wild grown forest, like they are autonomous and self-aware, without any impact from human intervention, but just evolving by their own nature. So, in these 3 videos, I used the real structure and added CGI elements such as; tentacles, fractals, and branches that sometimes intertwine in a sort of symbiotic network, similar to a fungus mycorrhiza system.

The Ryoan-ji project is the 3rd or 4th  version made since I first visited it over a decade ago. It's a fascinating place that I’ve been trying to recreate using 3D software. The videos were made in just a couple of days, compared to the Spatial Bodies videos, that took at least 3 months each. 

As a European residing in Japan, how have both cultures shaped your ideas on the interface between natural and constructed spaces? 

This is a really good question. I don’t have a direct answer, but will try to find something as spontaneous as possible. I grew up in a little farm village in northern Sweden with a vast forest just around our house. I was probably around 10 when I saw a tall building for the first time, so it made quite an impression. As a kid, I was a huge Star Wars nerd, and always built my own ships and vehicles, which I played with in the forest. They were not at a 1:1 scale, obviously, but more like toys matching the figures. I was especially fascinated and nearly obsessed with the Endor moon and how the Empire built all these high-tech constructions in the forest.  The landscape seemed off, but also like the constructions were part of the environment; naturally growing from the soil. In Japan, it’s pretty much like that because it’s so densely populated. There’s still a lot of untouched wilderness because of the mountains where the terrain is too steep to build, while most of the urban areas are covered with concrete. Often when watching Japan from above, in a plane heading to Sweden, I fantasize that the whole country is made of concrete and that there’s some spot with nature that could be artificial. When reaching Sweden, the opposite is true. Guess there’s plenty more nuance here, but that was just what popped up spontaneously.

Japan has a history of architectural renewal. Prefabricated housing often has a lifespan of 20-30 years, which fosters a culture of architectural experimentation and progress. In cities like Osaka, one often finds traditional and contemporary structures in close proximity. Some buildings in shopping and entertainment districts may be more unique, incorporating sculptural signs or some kind of entertainment feature (e.g. LED screens, an amusement ride, or a rock climbing area) into their construction. In what ways has Japanese architecture influenced your designs?

Besides the metabolism movement I mentioned earlier, I’ve also been influenced by Gunkan architecture and the ways in which architectural styles have emerged from each other. In Kyoto, for example, it’s common that old machiya houses are standing wall-to-wall with modern houses, convenience stores, and vending machines. It’s a mishmash that I think is quite unique for Japan. 

Also, what you mention about the average short lifespan of buildings makes it special. In the area where I lived now for over 10 years; part of the cityscape has completely changed. Where there used to be low, older buildings there’s now 10-15 floor mansions, basically looking the same with names such as Neverland, Shangri-la, or something in French. Whenever I’m in Tokyo or Osaka, I like to go by the JR train loop at night to watch and absorb all the details of  the panorama of pachinko’s, hostess bars, office buildings, small Shinto shrines, factories, izakayas and highways. At times, I’m also heavily influenced by Kengo Kuma and Shigeru Ban’s wooden structure, and Tadao Ando’s concrete architecture.

AUJIK has suggested that its works are influenced by animism and Shinto. How does tradition and/or ritual inform your ideas?

There are some elements in Shinto that had an impact. How it perceives nature and that everything has some sort of soul and can be sentient; whether it’s a rock or a semiconductor.

Shugendo and Yamabushi are another influence that I’ve included in some of my projects. Yamabushi are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits who live in symbiosis with nature. They’ve been around for 1400 years and follow the Shugendō doctrine, an integration of mainly esoteric Buddhism of the Shingon sect with Tendai Buddhism, Taoism, and elements of Shinto.

They perform sacred rituals that inspired me. For 5 years, I worked on a video trilogy called Impermanence Trajectory: 1. the Limbic nest 2. Stained seed & 3. Thalamus, and included these elements combined with neuroscience and AI.

In these videos, the protagonist was dressed in a yamabushi influenced suit and acted as an agent, or code that performed various rituals to reach enlightenment and a higher spiritual state. It could be compared to how neural networks and AI algorithms function to improve the output.

How do you see the relationship between animism and artificial intelligence?

I remember reading Ray Kurzweil's book The Singularity is Near in which he contemplates “How smart is a Rock?”

A rock that consists of about ten trillion trillion atoms in a kilogram, which is constantly in motion, how can it represent computation? Based on that theory and pancomputationalism, an idea that nature can successfully be explained by computable scientific models, I started connecting AI with animism. Even before I knew about this; these two components were the basic concept of AUJIK, but then I realized it could be technically feasible in a more physical sense.

So, my fundamental idea is that all matter could be used as a computational entity; and therefore,  in the long run,  become sentient by evolving and improving itself.  

What is the Tschandalacene?

We are now living in the second phase of the Anthropocene, as defined by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer, and I’ve  become interested in more theoretical and fictional -cenes after watching a lecture by Donna Haraway talking about the Chthulucene and Capitalocene. The following is taken from the beginning of the film and provides a brief narrative of the work.

Tschandalacene: marks the era after the Irrevra period (post-singularity) and until the quantum portal collapse. Once a physical world, centered around mount Wakakusa in Nara, Japan, and then gradually altered into an AI generated simulation. The Tschandalacene was established by UKI-J4; a synthetic entity manufactured by the Oshiifamily. It is capable of transcending with the sacred deer that inhabit Nara, and they live in a symbiotic circuit, constantly evolving and devolving in harmony and tranquility. This video depicts an aeon of time sweeping through the physical realm by the simulation and its self-inflicted collapse to the unknown.

Essentially, these synthetic entities, who started their lives in the physical world and further on in a simulation, built their own colony and constantly evolved into new incarnations and configurations. The word Tschandala is a term Friedrich Nietzsche borrowed from the Indian caste system, where Tschandala is a member of the lowest social class. 

Which artists or writers or individual works have been the most influential for you?

I’ve gone through plenty of phases. I started with regular oil painting and was inspired by a whole bunch of painters like: Martin Kippenberger and Anselm Keifer, while also Basquiat, Willem de Kooning, and Francis Bacon. They meant a lot at the time. Then there’s more classic artists that I have always been attached to, such as Ando Hiroshige, Diego Velazquez, Arnold Böcklin, and Pieter Brueghel. One contemporary artist that had a big impact on me is Matthew Barney and his Cremaster cycle, which is what got me into video art. Another one is obviously Chris Cunningham and the music videos he made for Björk, Autechre, Aphex Twin, and Squarepusher. That electronic music scene has been by far my greatest influence since I started making art. Then, there’s a whole bunch of stuff  in literature, film, philosophy, and science. There’s several people working with AI that have been giving me direction, from Marvin Minsky to Ray Kurzweil, Juergen Schmidhuber, Nick Bostrom, and Ben Goertzel. And then there’s architecture, so I need to add the Japanese metabolism movement with Kenzo Tange and Kisho Kurokawa. Also, Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando have been strong influences for the last several years. Another thing is these Spomenik (brutalism monuments) structures in Eastern Europe. AND I need to add Stanley Kubrick, the Alien movies, and Peter Greenaway while I’m at it.

Is there any advice you would give to artists working in animation or digital media?

I’m not sure. Even though I’ve been working and struggling quite a long time in this field it still feels like I’m not part of it, so it’s a bit difficult to put it in that perspective. I guess I could say; don’t rely too much on technology, trends, and what’s hype at the moment. 

Are there any projects you are currently developing?

Yes, there’s a whole bunch. Most importantly is an immersive video project for Toda (Digital theater of Art) in Dubai curated by a Moscow based gallery called Generative gallery. It’s a digital amphitheater covered in a high-res LED screen. It’s a new frontier for me and really exciting to work with such a huge spatial format. The project is a collaboration with a German female musician, singer, and media artist called Phyllis Josefine (artist name: dvvdvv), whom I’m also making other video and music collaborations with at the moment. We have been spending nearly a year working on a music video that is becoming a short film. It’s a bit like a fairy tale and influenced by Karakuri (Japanese clockwork robots made in the Edo period) and automata’s. There will  be a short book with illustrations to it. I’m planning for a new version in the Spatial Bodies series for a Chinese city in collaboration with a Japanese electronic artist called Daisuke Tanabe (who made the score for the previous SB videos).

AUJIK’s animations will be featured online and on multiple outdoor screens throughout September during the Supernova 2021 festival. 

The addtional artist Tutorial Tracking Motion with AUJIK is available on our Education page

AUJIK.com