Thomas Scheffer

ALTER EGOS by Thomas Scheffer is an artistic exploration of the AI-supported selfie, which represents a kind of contemporary form of self-portraiture with different facets and identities. The ALTER EGOS series comprises eight identities—#transhuman, #space, #crazy, #bohemian, #futuristic, #holographic, #genius, and #datamorph—as well as another identity, #barock, which has fallen out of time. The titles of the identities already allude to different meta-levels. As the name suggests, the double portrait #barock brings another era into play, in which it was customary to have oneself or a couple portrayed as wealthy or noble elites. 

A single selfie taken by Scheffer served as the starting point for the artificial intelligence. The texts entered in the so-called “prompt” input mask defined the direction for the AI's hallucinations. In the final step, the artist combined the images via interpolation to create an animated image.

In the respective moving images, the viewer perceives facial expressions and illusory lip movements that are not part of the AI and not part of the creative process. The viewer is thus the originator of these interpretations. 

The assignment to a specific gender, which, among other things, shapes identity culturally and socially and is linked to behaviors and expectations of a person, proves to be unstable over time and was deliberately used by the artist (particularly visible in #bohemian). 

Some of the characters depicted present social outsider positions and all prove to be fragile, permeable, and almost fleeting.

The identity of #datamorph is particularly relevant. It creates itself in the in-between and/or in the transcendent. Is it a human being or an unknown life form, a kind of robot or a new deity? Is #datamorph the personification of AI? 

ALTER EGOS deals with the transformation of various aspects and characteristics into a data set and with the manifestation of existence in the data cloud, thus representing a multi-layered position in the socio-scientific, multi- and intercultural discourse.

To what extent can personal identity, cultural belonging, and social cohesion be endangered if totalitarian developments prevail and artificial intelligence ultimately makes assessments in people's lives? It is up for debate whether the individual will continue to be given attention or whether they will be lost in a virtual data set.

ALTER EGOS raises a variety of questions that will be socially relevant and could shape the coming decades.