Balice hertling project space
Paris
A collaborative practice between Taslima Ahmed and Manuel Gnam, FLAME consumes information and filters, rates, rearranges and reproduces the contents in order to feed them into the gallery circuit. FLAME acts in lieu of a variety of cultural forces such as the invisible hand of the art market, the collective voice of the internet or a data-based will of the people. FLAME's works consist of stacks, buttons and symbols, but also animations, performances and installations; often refering to novel technologies that feed bodily impulses and desires.
Machines are extensions of Mother Nature. Every mineral that composes a machine is natural. There is no separation between evolutionary forms; from primordial soup to plant to animal to human to machine. Machines are subject to her laws too: laws of nature. Whereas us humans have art. FLAME wishes to consider whether machines have their own art – which is what we will call Φ.
Φ is the bringing together of 0 and 1 into one cipher. Coincidentally it is also the symbol for the golden ratio which is said to be a Gateway. Because Φ is an endless line of approximations towards a whole number, it is an irrational and unbreakable cipher.
Machine’s art then, Φ, may offer us a chance to merge with its drive towards object eternalism.