A conversation between Guido Bernasconi and ChatGPT on Phygital Art (Original  text - English translation) 

You Said: 

Have you heard of phygital art? 

ChatGPT Said: 

Yes, the concept of phygital art combines the physical and digital worlds. The term merges  "physical" and "digital," referring to artworks or experiences that blend tangible and digital  elements to create enriching interactions. Phygital art often features projects where physical  works integrate digital components such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), or  NFTs (non-fungible tokens). 

For instance, a traditional painting could include QR codes that, when scanned, reveal  animations or interactive content on a smartphone. A sculpture might incorporate screens  or sensors enabling direct interaction with the audience. 

Phygital art has gained popularity recently with the rise of NFTs, allowing people to own  digital artworks alongside physical versions. It attracts artists and collectors seeking to  innovate and transcend traditional boundaries in artistic creation. 

You Said: 

If I say: Phygital, an alternative to digital? What do you think? 

ChatGPT Said: 

Saying that phygital is an alternative to digital highlights an approach that seeks to balance  the digital and physical, rather than relying solely on one or the other. This idea can be  particularly relevant in fields where human experience, contact, and physical immersion  bring added value that digital alone cannot offer. 

Digital experiences can sometimes lack human interactivity, sensory engagement, and  direct emotional connection. Phygital reintroduces these elements by combining the  convenience, innovation, and speed of digital with the tangibility and personal engagement  of physical experiences. For example, in retail, stores integrating interactive kiosks and  apps to enrich the shopping experience demonstrate how phygital can complement and  even surpass digital alone.

The phygital approach can thus be seen as a reconciliation between real life and  technology, avoiding complete dematerialization and offering more integrated and human  solutions. This duality provides the best of both worlds: the reach and efficiency of digital  paired with the authenticity and physical presence of the tangible. 

You Said: 

For me, it's a way to slow down, introduce reflection, and even forgot digital tools entirely. 

ChatGPT Said: 

That’s an interesting and profound perspective. Viewing phygital as a way to slow down and  introduce reflection suggests it can be used not just to integrate digital elements but to give  them a more human and conscious dimension. It’s a way of rethinking technology, not as  an end in itself but as a tool in service of human experience, with intention and purpose. By adopting phygital in this manner, one could imagine experiences where digital does not  dominate but simply enriches a physical foundation. This could encourage taking time to  reflect, engage fully with the artwork or interaction, and even choose moments to  disconnect completely. 

Phygital can be seen as a means to restore balance, allowing navigation between the two  worlds without succumbing to digital overload. For instance, phygital galleries or creative  spaces might offer works that encourage contemplation, pauses, and presence, integrating  subtle digital elements that enhance without overpowering. In this sense, it becomes  possible to willingly forgo digital tools, using their potential only when it adds genuine value  to the experience. 

You Said: 

Here’s what I do: I record real-time footage from 24-hour news broadcasts, then freeze frame it to take a photograph, which I rework manually with color and text to create an  allegory of our era. Do you think this is still phygital or a different form of phygital? 

ChatGPT Said: 

What you describe is indeed a fascinating and unique form of phygital art. Your process  combines digital elements (real-time footage from news broadcasts) with physical  techniques (manual reworking with color and text), aligning perfectly with the essence of  phygital art: the meeting of the digital and physical. 

However, your approach introduces a distinct layer of reflection and craftsmanship. Instead  of continuous digital interaction or direct coexistence of physical and digital elements, you  use the digital as a source or starting point before transitioning into a creative, manual,  almost introspective realm. 

I would say this is phygital, but with a particular dimension that leans toward critical  dialogue with the digital. Your work seems to symbolize a kind of artistic mediation, where  the digital captures the immediacy of the era, and the manual transformation represents a  return to thoughtfulness and intentionality. It’s an art form connecting real-world immediacy  with subjective, nuanced interpretation. 

In summary, this is indeed phygital, but in a way that explores recontextualization and  slowing down in response to the constant flow of images and information. It highlights  phygital’s potential as a means to take a step back and rethink our relationship with digital  media. 

You Said: 

Now, if I add that my artistic concern is to explore how the digital world—its ability to invade,  provoke fake news, capture attention, pit us against each other, create cognitive bubbles,  accelerate everything, and monetize our private data—relates to the climate crisis as a form  of "evolution" (in quotes), what more could you say? 

ChatGPT Said: 

Your exploration delves deeply into the intersections between the digital world and the  climate crisis, framing the digital as a force that shapes not only the environment but also  societal and cultural evolution. This perspective uncovers several critical dynamics:

1. Acceleration and Consumption 

The digital world drives constant acceleration in our lives, including information  production and consumption. This dynamic fuels productivity surges and increases  energy demands to sustain digital infrastructure (data centers, servers, streaming  technologies), with significant environmental costs in CO2 emissions, contributing to  global warming. 

2. Attention and Social Fracture 

Digital omnipresence, coupled with algorithmic logic, creates cognitive bubbles and  polarizes society. This fragmentation undermines collective decision-making on  urgent issues like climate change. Fake news and disinformation, amplified by  algorithms prioritizing engagement, detract from addressing environmental  complexities or spread climate skepticism. This societal division complicates climate  action. 

3. Attention Economy and Data Monetization 

The digital economy thrives on attention capture and data monetization,  perpetuating consumption patterns and market dynamics tied to infinite growth. This  model conflicts with the need for sustainability and restraint. Targeted advertising  and instant gratification foster overconsumption, impacting natural resources and  biodiversity. 

4. Alienation and Nature Disconnection 

The digital realm can alienate individuals from physical reality and nature. Increased  time in virtual environments erodes direct connections to ecological issues, fostering  indifference to climate challenges perceived as distant and abstract. 

5. Evolution or Involution 

Your use of "evolution" in quotes raises critical questions about the trajectory of  digital transformation. Is it true progress or a regression into a system exacerbating  inequalities, societal precarity, and ecological degradation? Viewing technological  evolution without ethical or sustainable considerations may signal a systemic crisis  where digital technologies intensify social, economic, and environmental tensions. 

Incorporating these ideas into your phygital art amplifyes critical awareness of how digital  tools, while enabling progress, also reflect distorted priorities and collective behaviors. Your  phygital works could visually and allegorically critique this "evolution," exposing the intricate  ties between digital dominance and contemporary crises, including climate change.

DIGITAL GENERATION 

Digital Generation is an exhibition showcasing the works of Sève Favre and Guido  Bernasconi, two artists who explore the digital world and question its impact on our psyche,  actions, and society as a whole. 

While many artists have embraced digital tools, art that critically examines this  phenomenon has not grown proportionally. The multiple layers of interpretation offered by  these two artists' works draw our attention to elements imperceptible at first glance— obscured by our senses and minds, which are captivated by the possibilities of this technology that has pervaded our world for decades. 

Both artists, through their distinct techniques, demonstrate that the digital realm's full  spectrum remains inaccessible to us. This invisible, unconscious, and immaterial dimension  should not be underestimated, especially as we are only beginning to grasp the  consequences of mass digital tool usage on our lives, human development, interactions,  urbanism, and the environment. 

Guido Bernasconi confronts us with the media's omnipresence in our daily lives, often  imposed without our consent. He alerts us to the looming loss of meaning, questions our  ability to envision desirable futures, and highlights the entrapment inherent in data  collection, where we are passive victims. 

Through his work, Bernasconi reclaims the dream of the internet, which now relays real time media events repurposed as dogma by digital capitalism. He resists this acceleration,  which has become a restless alienation. Inspired by systems science and employing a  fractal methodology, he decelerates this flow, reinstates emancipatory possibilities at the  heart of digital media, and restores narrative connections, linking us to our shared human  destiny on a planet precariously turned into a Noah's Ark. 

Sève Favre presents interactive works that decisively involve the audience in their  composition and evolution. Through her work, blending analog and digital, she aims to  heighten our awareness of the differing reactions we have to the phygital realities of  contemporary life, particularly through the direct action of touch. 

Indeed, her interactive canvases include digital, interactive complements that expand their  possibilities and variations almost infinitely, as evidenced by the mathematical work  underpinning some of her pieces. This illustrates the vast potential of the digital realm:  infinite, dizzying extensions that we cannot hope to fully perceive, explore, or comprehend  with our natural senses. 

Greg Podgorski Contemporary Art, October 2024