/imagine a photo of me counting my fingers so I know I'm not dreaming
Foto Wien | 2023
You look down at your hands and count your fingers. You count 3 fingers on the left and 8 on the right hand, which makes a total of 11.You have successfully carried out a reality check which your brain has failed to pass. You now find yourself in the lucky position that the only limit to what is about to happen next is your imagination. You are in a lucid dream. You could now grow a pair of extra hands or floats around your apartment, savor the euphoria that comes with no longer being held back by the rules of physical world.
The distinction of what is real and what isn’t, is only made by counting your fingers. And should they not match the number of fingers you usually have, you know you are probably in a simulation. Your dreams, or what we understand of them for now, are a real-time simulation of reality. Albeit one that isn’t capable of simulating hands very well. Even when I am awake I have a hard time drawing hands. The fingers always give away the fact that I am not familiar enough with their complex anatomy, cannot correctly distribute bones and and joints and flesh. I’m exposed. Not only do humans, whether awake or dreaming, seem to have a troublesome relationship to their most used appendages. Machines seem to do the same. This is a series of photos that were created by using a photo of my hands, which conform to the norm of ten fingers, and the prompt “a photo of me counting my fingers so I know I’m not dreaming”.
Similarly to the “democratization” of the use of artificial intelligence, photography was once heavily disputed amongst the art world. The question arose of whether photography can even be considered art and whether the photographers are artists in the first place, since it was the machine that was doing all the work. A concern that sounds all too familiar these days. While for some this new technology is a dream come true, it can be a nightmare for those who are trying to keep reality from fantasy, facts from lies. A currency we are seemingly losing track of. Until machines have gotten better at understanding the anatomy of hands, I propose to keep counting your fingers.
The distinction of what is real and what isn’t, is only made by counting your fingers. And should they not match the number of fingers you usually have, you know you are probably in a simulation. Your dreams, or what we understand of them for now, are a real-time simulation of reality. Albeit one that isn’t capable of simulating hands very well. Even when I am awake I have a hard time drawing hands. The fingers always give away the fact that I am not familiar enough with their complex anatomy, cannot correctly distribute bones and and joints and flesh. I’m exposed. Not only do humans, whether awake or dreaming, seem to have a troublesome relationship to their most used appendages. Machines seem to do the same. This is a series of photos that were created by using a photo of my hands, which conform to the norm of ten fingers, and the prompt “a photo of me counting my fingers so I know I’m not dreaming”.
Similarly to the “democratization” of the use of artificial intelligence, photography was once heavily disputed amongst the art world. The question arose of whether photography can even be considered art and whether the photographers are artists in the first place, since it was the machine that was doing all the work. A concern that sounds all too familiar these days. While for some this new technology is a dream come true, it can be a nightmare for those who are trying to keep reality from fantasy, facts from lies. A currency we are seemingly losing track of. Until machines have gotten better at understanding the anatomy of hands, I propose to keep counting your fingers.
Projects:
② /imagine a photo of me counting my fingers so I know I’m not dreaming
