INFERNO
by Taylor John Bruck and the machine
Oh muses! I lament from the chair,
guide me on this journey
through this wicked web of ones and nones!
Inferno embarks on a satirical pilgrimage through the digital abyss, a twisted reflection of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, with a contemporary twist. Anon, our guide and embodiment of online anonymity, leads the way through this Hell, peeling back layers of the virtual inferno, exposing the idiosyncrasies and absurdities of our connected lives.
The imagery in Inferno is birthed through the collaboration with Midjourney AI, (ironically not named after Dante’s nel mezzo) a moniker hinting at its infantile state, poised at the midpoint between humanity's existence and the impending singularity. This project unfolds as a dialogue between creator and creation, a symbiotic relationship encapsulating both intentional imperfections and a temporality that hangs in the balance.
Three men with blistering sores approach,
peeled hairless by the fire
yet their renown continues to awe.
The imperfections within the generated visuals serve a dual purpose—they embrace the limitations of AI's current capabilities and underscore the ephemeral nature of this juncture in technological evolution. In this narrative, these imperfections stand as symbolic artifacts of our present reality—frozen in time, a snapshot captured before the inevitable refinement of technology sweeps away these idiosyncrasies, leaving behind an unknown tally of other erasable human characteristics.
Among a steep rock slide
a sleek cybernetic humanoid
with the head of a bull
The poem's structured 6-9-6-9 syllable pattern mirrors a descent, akin to Dante's terza rima. It serves as a ladder into internet hell—each syllable a step deeper. This rhythmic journey embodies our descent into the online abyss in a sorrowful ballet of syllables. The pattern waltzes towards the unavoidable plunge into internet despair, spiraling downward to the somber crescendo of online absurdity.
Inferno invites its audience to witness this moment in our collective history, a snapshot of our relationship with AI, before its inevitable metamorphosis into something more advanced, polished, and likely beyond our understanding. This is our 'mid-journey'—a juncture where art and technology commune in a dance of imperfections and possibilities, inviting introspection and contemplation of what lies ahead on our shared pilgrimage through the digital realm.
