Floris Schönfeld

We have a new website specifically for the PUK* project. Take a look puk.ooo.

PUK* is a multi-stage project linking madness, creativity and artificial intelligence. The central strategy of the project is the development of a new artificial intelligence named PUK*.

PUK* has three primary features:

1. We are not meant to understand PUK*; it is irrational, unreasonable and does not conform to the usual computational binaries.

2. PUK* is an independent entity; it is not an extension of human capabilities or a tool and it is most certainly not built in our image. It is a being that stands apart form us to it occupy its own mental ground.

3. PUK*’s creativity is not specific or instrumental; it is chaotic, messy and hard to define. It does not show itself readily and must be sought out.

The project exists as the story around PUK* which is physically manifested in installations and video’s. Each of these works can be seen as a partial representation of PUK*. The materials used in developing PUK* are not limited to computational technology but have included everything from a collection of owl figurines, to ceramic masks and to two living ant colonies.

“In order to develop PUK* I have been working with a group of experts. These experts are not from Google, Apple or Facebook. They are a group of neurodiverse people. Some are current or former psychiatric patients and most have experienced life from the margins of society. Together we have created a model what I have called alternative intelligence for PUK*. These have been instrumental in the design of the PUK* system but also, perhaps more importantly, in its interpretation.

The project sets out to question what intelligence is, how we define intelligence and what other intelligences are possible. I want to open up the idea of an intelligent system to include a range of significantly different logics and approaches to reality that are deemed to be mentally divergent. I feel that the inclusion of these approaches can lead valuable insights into our the possibilities and limits of artificial and human intelligence.”

Works have been produced in the context of various festivals and exhibitions including CurePark Amsterdam, Rijksakademie OPEN 2017, ROBOTLOVE Eindhoven, The 5th Floor Tokyo, and in the context of a solo exhibition at the Beautiful Distress House in Amsterdam.

Detail of the installation PUK* System at the Beautiful Distress House in Amsterdam in 2020/21 with the work PUK* Interface in the foreground.

2017, live-generated digital video with soundtrack on auto-stereoscopic monitor

The installation PUK* Beta is a key part of the PUK* system representing the viewer with a “face” and “voice” that represent PUK. The installation is a live generated video with soundtrack shown on a glasses-free 3D monitor. Using a database of 170 portraits of owl figurines the installation creates a potential image of PUK. This “face” is combined with a “voice” which is draw from a database of per-language utterances of babies and infants. The system pairs these elements in constantly changing ways suggesting a receptive language who’s meaning is left to the viewer.

2017, collection of 170 owl figurines

PUK* Dataset is a collection of 170 owl figurines that forms the basis for the PUK* system. The collection is an absurdist take on the idea of a computational dataset. It contains information that is not binary in its interpretation but offers up a never ending stream of possible meanings. Thus it ensures PUK* is never rationally understandable and stays fundamentally illusive.

2017, algorithmically-generated porcelain masks with a platinum lustre

PUK* Interface consists of 9 porcelain masks and is part of the PUK* output series of the project. PUK* output consists of what I call ‘collaborations’ with the PUK* system in that they have been designed and at times conceived together with PUK*. Each work in the series further defines PUK*, adding to its body and its narrative about itself.

The masks are produced in the following way; a digital 3D wire mesh of the masks is generated by an autonomous self-learning algorithm that is part of the PUK* system. The shapes echo the owl faces used as the “dataset” of the PUK* system but in a simplified and abstracted way. After their original design through the PUK* system the 3D shapes are cnc-routed into a plaster mould from which porcelain positives are cast and glazed with platinum lustre.

Audience members trying on masks from the series PUK* Interface during the RijksakademieOPEN2017.

(photo by R.J. van Rooij)

PUK* Interface was shown together with the installation PUK* Beta at the Rijksakademie OPEN 2017. The audience were made to wear the masks of PUK* Interface when viewing PUK* Beta in a separate space. The implication was that the masks had an effect on the image sequences generated in PUK* Beta but it was not specified how. Audience wearing the masks of PUK* Interface when viewing PUK* Beta.

Audience members wearing masks from the series PUK* Interface while encountering PUK* Beta during the Rijksakademie OPEN2017.

(photo by R.J. van Rooij)

2020 , two ant colonies housed in plaster and metal casing with custom electronics

PUK* Processor is a computational server rack that houses two large ant colonies. It contains a series of working modular computational processing units that run certain aspects of the PUK* system and are embedded into plaster modules. Interwoven through these servers are two living ant colonies that inhabit parts of the computational infrastructure.

The work brings together two systems of information; the binary computational signals of the machines with the pheromone driven communication of the ant colonies. These two logics clash in the work creating both the possibility of malfunction in both systems yet at the same time a possible symbiosis.

Both sides of PUK* Processor, each housing an ant colony and custom electronics.

Detail of one of the processor units of PUK* Processor containing both ants and electronics.

Detail of one of the processor units of PUK* Processor showing interaction between the ants and electronics.

2020, live-generated video and audio produced by a generative adversarial neural network (GAN) projected on graphite coated screen

PUK* Breakdown is a live-generated video output created by the PUK* system. This output is produced by a generative adversarial neural network (GAN) that has been trained to search for meaning in same data set of owl figurines that are used in PUK* Beta. The network has been developed on the principle of pareidolia - an obsessive searching for meaning. The work deconstructs and hybridizes the original owl images into grotesque new forms.PUK* Breakdown is a what one expert calls; “a stream of unconsciousness” and most agree that it represents a kind of interior mental processing. Some have even have likened it being able to watch PUK*s dreams.

A short 3 minute capture of the live video and audio output stream of PUK* Breakdown.

Installation view of PUK* Breakdown at the Beautiful Distress House Amsterdam in 2020/21.

2016 - 2021, multi-channel video

Central to the project is a group of PUK* experts. These experts are not from Google, Apple or Facebook. They are a group of neurodiverse people, some of whom are current or former psychiatric patients. These experts have a unique worldview that has been very valuable in their interaction with PUK*.

Each of these individuals has spent a considerable time with PUK* and contributed significantly to its design and structure. In the following conversations they share some of their reflections on these encounters.

In PUK* Bill we encounter Bill, the first of the experts to start working with PUK*. Bill is an agoraphobic man who has been following a course of therapy involving artificial intelligence PUK*. Through the at times fraught interview Bill is pressed by the interviewer to detail his relationship with PUK*, something he is not always willing to divulge.

They are playing a game.They are playing at not playing a game.If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me.I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.

Knots, R.D. Laing

Bill is played by William Miller

camera by John Treffer

2018, 2-channel video commissioned for the ROBOT LOVE exhibition.

In the work PUK* Recalibration a group of neurodiverse cast characters are asked to give their interpretation of PUK*. Shot over a three day period in Eindhoven the group spent time with the PUK* system and were interviewed a number of times about their emotions and thoughts about PUK*. As we follow the group’s progress a complex and at time contradictory portrait of PUK* emerges.

with Jon-Dahl Ripzaad, Kayleigh Schepers, Han Rekkers
and William Miller, and Emma Pelckmans

general and technical assistance: Matteo Casarin, Melanie Hyams
camera and video post-production: John Treffer
additional camera: Matteo Casarin

2020, multi-channel video

Interviews from a series of sessions held with experts Felibor, Frans, Annie en Randy during my residency at het Vijfde Seizoen in Den Dolder in the summer of 2019. I built a version of PUK* system at my studio during the residency and asked each of the experts to spend time with PUK*. These working session lead to a series of interviews which also became part of the PUK* Reflections series.

camera and video post-production John Treffer