George Drivas and the cultural organization Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative (PCAI), in the framework of the Ministry of Culture’s 2024 programme “All of Greece, One culture”, present on Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 July the multimedia work, titled The Biography of a Software. The event is offered free of charge by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.
What happens when a person who has forgotten everything tries to remember their life with the help of a computer? What if that person hasn’t forgotten everything? What if that person doesn’t even react like a human being? The Biography of a Software is a multimedia action, inspired and realized by visual artist George Drivas in collaboration with the music composer Melina Paxinos, that explores and presents the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) programs through moving image, photography and music. The authorship of the creator and the hitherto assumed – exclusivity of their creativity is disrupted or enhanced through the potential of these programs to create from scratch after being initially fed by human cognition.
Paraphrasing Benjamin, “I wonder what happens to the work of art in the age of its mechanical creation?” Or in a more provocative interpretation, “What happens to man in the age of his mechanical creation?”, George Drivas presents The Biography of a Software, a film, based initially on his own writing and direction, in which artificial intelligence programs intervene in the script and become co-creators. It is in this context of exploring the relationship between man-creator and machine that Melina Paxinos’ musical soundscape is created. The musician and composer expands the dialogue and “views” of an intelligent software. Attempting possible conjunctions with her musical references, she creates the soundtrack of the work that she will present live on both days of the event with the collaboration of three musicians.
The event is hosted at “Pi” (Global Centre for Circular Economy and Culture) in Delphi, the recently restored by the cultural organisation Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative (PCAI) monument of modern architecture, designed by the leading Greek architect Dimitris Pikionis and his son, Petros, in the late 1950s.
Participating actors: Alexandra Zoe, Panis Kalofolias, Rena Kyprioti, Panagiotis Margetis
Participating musicians: Melina Paxinos, Yannis Papadopoulos, Grigoris Theodoridis, Dimitris Klonis.
https://www.pcai.gr/the-biography-of-a-software
