Technology that lets us “speak” to the dead has been a mainstay of science fiction for decades. Now it has become a reality—and an increasingly accessible one, thanks to rapid advances in AI large language models. Digital clones of our beloveds could forever change the politics of life and death.
There’s something human about the urge to remember the people we love who passed away. As avatars that people feel a personal connection with have staying power, how do we deal with loss today?
Image by ZeBrA_GuRI
Soomin Shon
Soomin Shon’s videos, installations and live interventions capture stories and poetry suggestive of different forms of coded communication, manifested in our relationship with technologies. A lens to understand complicated contemporary lives overwhelmed by the virtual world, she investigates the emotional interiority of beings—those intangible aspects of our lives—through the materiality of bodies.