DISTRUST EVERYTHING

Distrust Everything is an audiovisual installation in episodes developed through artificial intelligence systems and 3D photogrammetries, which immerses the visitors within an uncanny, synthetic dream realized by a neural network. The immersive work explores the relationship between Fiction and Truth in the age of artificial intelligence through an aesthetic experience that challenges our perception of inner and outer landscapes.
We live most of our time blissfully unaware of the artificial, intensely designed tangle of infrastructures we inhabit. Accidents, traumas, crises briefly suspend our credulity, and shed light on a reality that exists in order to be fed by its own representations. A reality that is more and more like a dream.

Mirek “Amendant” Hardiker, author of Zaum Gadget, cult videogame/maze for Hypercard and former researcher at SRU (Stanford), has built a huge Dream Report Dataset (DRD), covering a time span of about 21 years and on a daily basis. Neural networks are trained on this dataset to generate a novel — that serves as a script — in which characters seems to come alive and materialize as archetypes from a synthetic underworld.

Credits:
Distrust Eveverything,
a project by Lorem
visual direction by Lorem & Karol Sudolski
Text Dataset by Mirek Amendant Hardiker
Written by Lorem & Mirek Amendant Hardiker
Editing by Michele Lori
Sonic collaborations with Acre and Luca Pagan.
Elerp algorithms by Nicola Cattabiani
Produced by Michele Lori
Co-commissioned with Elevate Festival

BIO
Lorem is a music-driven multidisciplinary practice by Italian musician, visual artist and independent researcher Francesco D’Abbraccio. Working with neural networks and artificial intelligence systems, Lorem produces sounds, visuals and texts.
Lorem’s work has been displayed (among others) at Ars Electronica, London Design Biennale, NXT Museum Amsterdam, Sheffield International Documentary Festival, Museo Triennale di Milano, HEK Basel, Transmediale Vorspiel, Fiber Festival, Design Museum, Liftoff Tokyo, RomaEuropa Festival.
D’Abbraccio is co-director of Krisis Publishing, a curatorial and editorial platform focusing on the impact of media culture on contemporary societies.