Ethereum

Price of a Soul

Collection

EGO IN THE SHELL — Empty Yet Multiplying

Creator

Emi Kusano

Description

None of the people depicted here exist. They are fictional portraits generated by an AI, referencing the world of the 1995 film Ghost in the Shell and interwoven with fragments of the artist's own facial data, treated as an impersonal material like paint. Inhabiting their cybernetic bodies, these figures exude a sense of drama, sorrow, and intimacy in their quiet, everyday moments. This series embodies the paradox of being "empty, yet multiplying," as non-existent images proliferate before our eyes. Infinitely replicated and expanded by AI, these images begin to invade our memory as seemingly authentic fragments of a past. In Buddhist thought, the self is not a fixed entity but a transient phenomenon (kū), momentarily formed by a confluence of conditions. How, then, does our self-perception transform when AI statistically generates and multiplies this "empty self"? Furthermore, fragments of the artist are embedded within these generated figures. They are not entirely other, but rather "anonymous selves" that carry the artist's shadow. Viewers may find a faint sense of déjà vu in the countless faces, just as the artist seeks out scattered pieces of her own identity within them. This reveals a process that points to the Buddhist concept of engi(dependent origination): the self is not a solitary entity, but is conditionally formed only through its relationship with countless others.

Traits

VISUALS

Haunted Modernity

PHILOSOPHY

The Puppet Master