Przemysław Jasielski - Photo Robotoid

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The appeals signed in recent years by scholars and intellectual authorities draw a fairly unambiguous vision of the future: the apocalypse is coming, the only question is whether this time the end of history will happen due to ecological catastrophe or artificial intelligence. It is true that a small group of visionaries from Silicon Valley is convinced that the future will be outwitted by engaging artificial intelligence to solve ecological problems and gain a bonus in the form of immortality. Some of these visionaries are convinced that they will live to immortality.

Philosopher and sociologist Bruno Latour notes that both visions, immortality and the apocalypse do not necessarily exclude each other. On the contrary, immortality for the few, and more precisely the rescue thanks to the use of the latest technologies, with the possibility of escaping into space, is not excluded, at the expense of the apocalypse for the rest. According to Latour, capitalism looks like in the era of the New Climate Regime. If we know that the Earth is not enough for everyone, let us take care of it for as long as possible for some. To paraphrase a Colonel from "Czterech pancerni": "where we, there are no borders of our future, there is no way back". In the face of such a perspective, it is hardly surprising that this time the philosopher Ewa Bińczyk in the book "The Age of Man" writes about the anthropocene marasmus - this is the situation, in which we have full knowledge about the consequences of human impact on the environment, but we are not able to take adequate actions to avoid a catastrophe. On the contrary, we are constantly getting involved in activities that deepen the crisis.

How to get out of the anthropocene sluggishness? How to avoid the idiotic vision of salvation through miraculous technologies? And how, at the same time, do not fall into the discouragement and apathy caused by helplessness in the approaching apocalypse? This is a situation when one should reach for the ultimate weapon - the imagination. It was the imagination that the participants of the Paris May '68 wanted to entrust to the authorities, and the imagination was also elevated in the slogan "Freedom, Equality, Imagination" accompanying Forum of the Future of Culture 2017.

The mere reference to the imagination will be not much if there is not enough ability to use it. This is the moment to recall Przemysław Jasielski, an artist with an extremely interesting imagination, which evolved along with his creative development, which I would call the path from the art of anthropocene to post-anthropocentrism. Nearly a decade ago, I had the opportunity to learn about the cycle of his control unit work: Earthquake Control Unit, Earth Rotation Speed ​​Control Unit and Global Warming Control Unit. These are today classic examples of anthropocene art illustrating in an intriguing way the relationship between man and the geo-ecosystem.

I had the opportunity to interpret the works of Przemysław Jasielski, especially the Global Warming Control Unit at the International Art Line Conference in 2011. "Jasielski pierces the balloon of the pride of scientists convinced that they have solutions to all problems that are themselves the primary cause. And it forces you to reflect on this very pride: is there really no other solution for the appeals of the anthropocene than even more technical intervention in the environment and the global ecosystem? The artist installing a technical object acting in accordance with the assumptions of one of the geon engineering projects achieves a profound non-technical effect: he launches a discourse that can have a much greater driving force than new technologies. "That was before the decade, the artist, however, develops and his subsequent projects undertake an intimate relationship between man and technology, expose for the first time the technical system described by Karol Marek, when man ceases to be a "master" and becomes part of a system that develops in accordance with its logic. This is how the potshumanist and post-anthropocentric perspective opens, with the perfect expression of the Photo Robotoid installation. The machine used for automatic shooting must work with people, after all it has to photograph it. He does this, however, according to his plan, showing that autonomy does not have to mean perfection in a human-defined sense (eg as a fidelity of model reproduction), but it can lead to the creation of a different understanding of the sense of action, and ultimately to the production of original and incomprehensible aesthetics. Less probably, however, are the photographs themselves - significant that the participants interact with Photo Robotoid often leave them in place, perhaps dissatisfied with the effect. It turns out that the interaction is more important, the attempt to enter into a kind of dialogue with the machine, to "convince" her or to deceive her so that she surrenders to the will and expectations of man. No chance, the effect eludes anyone else's control.

During the aforementioned Art Line conference, I said: "Anthropocene requires a lot of imagination. It requires apocalyptic imagination, imagination for the age, when all the bridges with the Arcadian world of the past have been burned, and man becomes at the same time the master and hostage of Nature. "Progress and disaster are two sides of the same coin," said Hannah Arendt. The French philosopher Jean-Pierre Dupuy develops her credo to the idea of ​​enlightened catastrophe. It proclaims that what is impossible is certain. The precondition for the impossible is its conception. "And the show should be added encouraging to interact with the art of Przemysław Jasielski.