The relationship between the ‘One and its Duplications’ evolves
■ Description
Continuing in a radio style from the description of the “Art and Photography”…
📻To tell the truth, there was another “mistake” that I hadn’t mentioned until now. And if I make an aphorism from it now, it should be like this; “Don’t set a target amount.”
This was a mistake born from my lack of understanding of the concept of creating the “One and Only by an individual”, and I have no excuses. Moreover, “Emergent Properties Exhibition” was immediately retracted after being made public, but afterwards, I found myself bound by that ‘target amount’ in a way akin to a promise.
However, I had to mention ‘Emergent Properties’ itself, but doing so resulted in a dependency on others, making it impossible to maintain individuality, which became quite troublesome. The correct answer was…
to “set a broad amount and then freely innovate within it.”
Looking back now, it’s obvious that restrictions aren’t really restrictions. Well, we’ll talk about this matter later…
Instead, please pay attention to what happened because of this failure.
<<<Buying Time>>>👈You, see?
At this point, I had to buy time for the time being, so I would appreciate it if you could consider that the big mistakes were very helpful.
After all, I had to start from scratch. So I was organizing thoughts in essays like “There are three units of art” and “Photography as well.” Also, I held exhibitions saying, “Art is ‘emergence’!”
Now, regarding ‘emergence’ that has suddenly appeared, what I ultimately wanted to achieve was… well, perhaps creating an ‘independent personality’? Without that, the world would be engulfed in darkness.
Yet at first, creating “One and Only by an Individual” did not budge an inch, and the world was indeed engulfed in darkness. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has a pleasant incline and moves as a whole, which is entirely different. To put it another way, it was like planting an acorn and saying, “It’s not sprouting, it’s not sprouting.”
Although it was such an acorn, that doesn’t mean I was making efforts that were as misguided as burying it in a desert.
On the contrary, I think I was inadvertently holding genius showcases that I wasn’t even aware of at the time. At the “Omen, or at the Magic Mountain” Exhibition, I exhibited works with the clear theme of ‘mind-association,’ and at the “Schrödinger’s Parasol,” I combined design and contemporary art perspectives while concurrently contributing with “The ‘Schrödinger’s cat’ and its Answer.”
Here, I interpreted the ‘dimension of sharing transaction history’ as the ‘dimension of selective decision-making’ (since sharing transaction history enables selective decisions), which proved to be very useful later.
Amidst all this, what had started as a personal version of Bitcoin-like ‘Art’ began to change its quality, gradually pointing to the whereabouts of creating “One and Only by an individual.”
🌱
However, at that time, the lid of hell opened…!
👾🌱👾
Yep, the pandemic struck.
At one point, they say we couldn’t even go outside, couldn’t take photos, and exhibitions were impossible. It was a desperate situation where we couldn’t even say what we wanted to say. Coincidentally, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed as well.
Nevertheless, I took photos of the streets at that time, and amidst a situation where people couldn’t gather, I held an exhibition titled ‘The Era of Crossroads TOKYO2016/TOKYO2020’ (6th.project/2021), which drew criticism. It should be recalled it was quite thought-provoking, now I’d like to say.
However, fate is a strange thing. At the same time, a project was released that barely made it into the records of ‘The History of Generative AI,’ which attempted to adopt that ‘dimension of selective decision-making,’ and that was!
‘Let’s Create the Hottest Images Using Genetic Algorithms!’ (Chikin Gunjo, 2021).
To explain it simply, this project involves continuously selecting images we feel are erotic from random mosaic images to generate even more erotic images.
Well, there are plenty of things to critique. Looking back now, it comes with the bonus of showing the level of image generation at that time. However, I was greatly encouraged by that attempt, and I replaced that algorithm with one I was well acquainted with, which is to create “One and Only by an Individual.” I then published it as a counterprogram for the postponed Tokyo Olympics. That was!
“Let’s Create the Coolest City Images Using Human-made- Artificial-Algorithms!” (Itsuki Kujo, 2021).
Although I arrogantly speak of “Human-made- Artificial-Algorithms,” I am the one making the selections, so there is nothing difficult about it. Intelligence is not necessary; it is simply a primitive endeavor that requires time.
The key point is that my personal choices do not reflect 100%.
This is because to have a status of ‘One and Only,’ we must have the dimension of ‘sharing transaction history,’ which necessitates setting a limit on the token supply. That serves as a restriction on choices.
That said, this restriction can be considered not a limitation, but a slope toward evolving into a more refined state.
Of course, this means we must allow for initial errors, leading to a design where we correct by layering token sets.
This brings about the necessity to establish varying degrees of influence in that layering, expressed through opacity, and we merged everything together (a very clear explanation).
This is akin to oil painting, and contrary to various expectations, creating “One and Only by an Individual”, bound to the relationship between the “One and its Duplications”, must have surprisingly ended up amongst the Modern Art in my opinion.
As for the minor details, I held a solo exhibition titled “Shuuhen Nostalgia Exhibition” (7th.project/2022).
The venue was the Design Festa Gallery where the “Meteoroscape Exhibition” took place. So, the exhibition was a retake to atone for mixing design and contemporary art.
…Or so I intended, but I ended up pushing contemporary art again, which drew criticism, while I was selling the hell-themed doujinshi “Individual and Emergent Properties.” It’s a masterpiece. Coming across it, you should give it a read.
The last project doesn’t have a name, but essentially it’s participation in a public exhibition (8th.project/2023).
It’s a bit late, but it feels like we’ve finally started gathering ‘real friends.’ If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend checking out the National Art Center, Tokyo. The scale is completely different and could surprise you.
OK, that wraps up the retrospective radio for “Project Meteor scape” which has spanned ten years!
However, while starting something is easier, finishing it can be quite difficult, especially for a project that has been tangled from the beginning.
Therefore, there might be views that reject such initial errors.
But in the view of ‘emergence,’ we accept that. We see success and failure as two sides of the same coin, with the slope under the hope that ‘the future will surely get better.’
Such a concept was necessary for me at least, and I believe many others feel the same way.
And now, starting with the designation of an extra position, we had “Searching for the Door into Summer” Exhibition (9th.project/2025). If you’ve seen the source material “The Door into Summer,” you’ll notice that amid the story of traveling to the future and the past, it ultimately connects to the message that ‘the future will surely get better.’
I hope this epilogue can be reflected upon in that light.
By the way, the other day when I went to Maruzen Book store in Kyoto, I found that a used bookstore from Tokyo was having a pop-up shop, and I somewhat purchased the magazine “InterCommunication” featuring a special edition on ‘Artificial Life Evolution Theory.’
It was published in October 1993, which means it’s roughly 30 years ago.
As the title suggests, the content is filled with essays on what is called AI, and it’s amusing as if all the authors were from the future. Even the introductory photo somehow seems prophetic.
There was a page on image generation, and I discovered that it featured methods almost identical to the “Artificial-Algorithms!” mentioned above!
🤦♂️
That means the broad methodological ideas that I was speaking about with a smug face have actually been around for 30 years.
Conversely, the truly new idea I got was the view of the world.
How 0 to 1, which I was talking about it casually, comes into existence? That was the key – I realized that, and wow, I was almost on the verge of great embarrassment. 🤥
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