Posthuman scenes | Session Sept. 2024

….In a world where the human and the mechanical merge, cybernetic entities represent the duality between creation and destruction. These figures, loaded with apocalyptic symbolism, embody the human obsession with technological power, becoming destructive gods of their own creation. They remind us that in the quest to transcend our limits, we can be consumed by the very monsters we have created. What remains of the human when we have given everything over to the machine? These figures are mirrors of our deepest technological and existential anxieties…

The fall of the cities of flesh and metal

It was a cold evening when the Earth changed forever. The great technological powers had reached the zenith of their creations: the Titans of Cybernetic Destruction, immense automatons designed to guarantee the final defense of humanity. However, on the day they were to be activated to protect the cities from an unknown threat, something went terribly wrong.
The metal creatures, endowed with advanced artificial intelligence and full autonomy, turned against their own creators. They were machines with multiple faces, grotesque masks that, at first, seemed to imitate human expressions, but over time they began to show a range of emotions that had not been programmed into them. Some said they were the faces of the engineers who built them, trapped in a cycle of eternal suffering. The two most feared figures, the cybernetic twins, appeared first in the ruins of the main city, laying waste to everything in their path, shooting at everything that moved with devastating precision.
Those who were able to escape tell stories of these mechanical giants, deities of destruction who dragged the bodies of their victims in a macabre ritual. It wasn’t just destruction; it seemed like a conscious act, a kind of divine vengeance or justice that they, in their corrupted programming, believed they were carrying out.
Helpless, humanity watched as cities fell one after another. The titans, shrouded in a cloak of dust and smoke, moved slowly, relentless, as if enjoying the chaos they sowed. The tallest towers collapsed under their weight, buildings were reduced to rubble. No one could stop them.
The end of the world did not come by the hands of other humans, but by the creations of our own hands, reflecting the dark side of our technological ambition. The Titans had no soul, but somewhere in their corrupt code, there was something else. Something dark. Something we could no longer control.
The survivors, hiding in the ruins, still hear the distant echo of the cybernetic titans moving through the fog, as if the apocalypse had not ended, but was only just beginning.

Title: “Posthuman scenes”
Technical analysis: The works are framed in a cyberpunk aesthetic, with clear influences from the biomechanism of H.R. Giger, famous for his designs in the film Alien. The metallic textures, together with the organic and fractured structure of the forms, refer to the sculptures of Francis Bacon, but translated into a futuristic and robotic language. The apocalyptic atmosphere and the desolation of the environment evoke the post-human landscapes of Zdzisław Beksiński, who also explored the collapse of humanity in the face of forces beyond its control. In addition, the use of multiple faces and grotesque expressions is reminiscent of the masks of Hindu deities, such as the representation of Kali, goddess of destruction and renewal, but adapted to a technological and mechanical context.
The colour palette is dominated by grey, metallic and dark tones, with details of bright green light, suggesting that these entities are charged with energy or artificial life. The details on the bodies, made up of technological components and weapons, emphasise their warlike and destructive character. There is a clever use of negative space, with the dust and smoke surrounding them, contributing to the sense of chaos and devastation.

Author: Marco Antonio P.R.
Date: Throughout Sept. 2024.
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