Ghost Out of the Machine

The airport connects cities through an aviation network. Cities are like huge electronic circuits filled with information and electricity, and people are connected through the internet and communication devices. The airport is the aviation network connecting city to city. We live in this world of densely intertwined networks, forming new identities.

The title of the exhibit, Ghost Outside the Machine, is a reference to the concept ‘ghost in the Machine’ used by British philosopher Gilbert Ryle in his 1949 book to critique Descartes' mind-body dualism. Ryle's concept is mainly used to refer to new consciousness generated inside computers. This concept was also the basis of the 1995 Japanese animation Ghost in the Shell, which depicts a future in 2029 where human consciousness is embedded in cyborgs, making it hard to determine the boundaries of humanity. The setting is not far from our present year 2024, and thus, we find ourselves close to the future envisioned by past science fiction. At the same time, most of human perception and senses still rely on analog elements. Instead of confronting changes brought by technology, we often regard them as unrealistic or metaphorical.