GRIEF: ARTIFICIAL

“You left ground and sky weeping, mind and soul full of grief. No one can take your place in existence or in absence.“ - Rumi “GRIEF : ARTIFICIAL“ is a fictional visual poem describing five stages of grief as experienced by an imaginary artificial super-intelligence called RUMI (Reactive, Ubiquitous, and Monolithic Intelligence). Each stage is a brief eulogy, generated by RUMI as a tableau that is both a token of affection and a response to loss. Inspired by software design philosophies, RUMI confronts agony by reconstructing emotions and justifying loss using the five principles of abstraction, encapsulation, polymorphism, inheritance, and closure, all of which together form RUMI’s perception of reality. “GRIEF : ARTIFICIAL“ is a nonlinear narrative of RUMI’s mourning and coping process. Its objective is to ultimately explore the byproducts of artificial intelligence, question the nature of artificial emotions, and to investigate how feelings manifest in digital realms through ambiguity. Conceived and Exec