Deepfake Bodies and the Drag Professor by Katrien JACOBS

Jacobs will introduce her forthcoming book Deepfake Bodies: The Sexual Politics of AI (Bloomsbury Academic) and explain how the writing led to the creation of an artwork, entitled The Wet Ones. The artwork is a video installation and performance piece based on a sci-fi scenario featuring the drag persona “Dr. Jacobs,” an ageing scholar who has been selected to synthesize a younger clone of himself—the “AI professor.” In the story, a mishap occurs and the AI professor escapes from the MaCi lab. We follow Dr. Jacobs on a voyage to find  his AI creation close to the surrounding waters of the Isère river.  The installation and sci-fi story take inspiration from ancient Chinese and Greek myths of aquatic humanoids, such as the Nereids (The Wet Ones), tiny nymphs who travel in packs and protect waters. The story also comments on our transforming AI bodies, water-ecologies and creativities. It references Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, featuring a cutting-edge scientist and his flawed creation who trail and stalk each other in the Alpine mountain region.