Parallel to the exhibition SURVIVAL IN THE 21st CENTURY, the Deichtorhallen Hamburg is showing Julius von Bismarck's video installation Grenzen der Intelligenzen as a solo presentation. A neon tube shown in the video pulsates and transmits its light in rhythmic waves into the darkened exhibition space, where it blurs with the actual pulsation of the neon tubes in the room. On closer inspection, termites can be seen circling around the lamps.
For millions of years, insects have used luminous celestial bodies as their main orientation reference, which is disturbed by human intervention in their living environment in the form of artificial light, making their environment no longer navigable for the animals. The termites, often regarded by humans as invasive pests, are left to die of exhaustion here, flying in circles forever. Von Bismarck films their death flight with a slow-motion camera and, by slowing down the recording, makes the inherent flashing of the neon tube visible to the human eye.
According to current estimates, the first models of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) will be available in a few months to years. These artificial intelligences, which are no longer specialized in just one area, will be able to expand their knowledge autonomously and surpass the intellectual abilities of individual humans in many areas. Their emergence marks a turning point in human existence.
In his works, von Bismarck questions the conceptual separation of humans from their own environment, which is constantly manifested through naming and classification. This separation goes hand in hand with the exercise of human power over our environment, which now has catastrophic consequences and calls human sovereignty into question. The lights of the video room, which light up analogously to the flashing of the neon tube in the video, simulate the slowing down of the light flickering in the neon tube and transport the underlying question of the disruption of the human ability to navigate into the exhibition space. In the face of the AGI, Julius von Bismarck opens up a space for speculation about the ability of different species to think and the possibilities of a multi-species future.
