Égobsolescence is a series of interactive installations stemming from the doctoral research-creation project of Jean-Philippe Côté [student, UQAM]. The first two artworks of the series (Uchronie & Panégoptique) were presented on December 5 and 6, 2024, as part of a public end-of-residency presentation in the experimentation room at Hexagram-UQAM.
Jean-Philippe is a PhD candidate in Études et Pratiques des Arts at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Under the supervision of Louis-Claude Paquin [co-investigator, UQAM], his research explores the use and implications of technoresidual materials in the context of artistic creation.
Exhibition poster.
Approach and process
Many objects become obsolete even before they become useless. In this case, the wear of time does not manifest through physical degradation, but rather through a shift in the culture to which the object belongs. It is within this interval between obsolescence and uselessness that Jean-Philippe’s work is situated. “The discrepancy between the relevance of the past and the irrelevance of today creates a zone of tension that I enjoy exploring” he says. Through his research and creations, he develops a certain intimacy with the machines that inspire him and, by extension, with those that have created them in the first place. These devices shape his worldview, while enhancing his understanding of them. Paradoxically, this is exactly what gives his work an exotic quality for those encountering it for the first time.
One might sense a certain effect of nostalgia in his work. This holds true if we consider nostalgia as “a way to transform the past through imagination” (Niemeyer, 2024) [translation by the author]. In his work, technoresidual debris becomes the starting point for a material exploration of its poetic potential. The process is not linear; rather, it is guided by material serendipity and heuristics.
As with several previous works, Égobsolescence explores the themes of the human face and self-mediation, specifically from a sociotechnical and political perspective. This exploration unveils facets of what Zuboff refers to as ‘the surveillance economy’ (2019), invoking politically charged techniques such as biometrics and artificial intelligence. Through a mediarchaeological approach, his art exposes the progress, stagnation, and regressions of the media and technological devices that are omnipresent in our lives.
Panégoptique
Panégoptique (2024)/Photo Credit: Adil Boukind.
Panégoptique is an interactive installation that creates a dynamic fusion of the faces of two interactors, forming hybrid, imaginary beings that dwell at the intersection of familiarity and alterity. By blending texture, color, and topology, the installation generates destabilizing portraits that provoke discussion about the mediation of our self-image through technology, society, and, ultimately, about our vanity and fears.
The installation consists of a sculptural assemblage of 13 obsolete iPhones. The use of devices that are culturally considered outdated, even if perfectly functional, is intentional. This choice aims to question our relationship with time and technological ecologies. By invoking the omnipresence and cultural significance of the iPhone, the installation challenges our personal relationship with social status and obsolescence, as well as with video surveillance and self-representation.
Detail of the work “Panégoptique” (2024)/Crédit : Chloé Rondeau.
The mobile phones in the installation use facial recognition technology to identify and photograph visitors’ faces. These images are then sent to the system’s “brain,” which transforms them into 3D models and combines them. The surface of the resulting portrait is composed of waves drawn from the two pixel matrices. Its topology oscillates between the two captured faces, allowing the application of the skin color and texture of one face to the shape of the other. The algorithm exploits this liminal space where the faces are both recognizable and unrecognizable.
Detail of the work “Panégoptique” (2024)/Crédit : Chloé Rondeau.
Here are some examples illustrating the style of hybrid portraits that can be generated by the installation by combining the faces of two interactors.
To respect the exhibition participants’ right to privacy, the faces in these portraits are AI-generated.
Uchronie
Detail of the work “Uchronie” (2024)/Crédit : Adil Boukind.
Uchronie is an interactive installation that uses artificial intelligence to generate dystopian narratives and fabulatory portraits inspired by objects that hold personal value for each participant.
When the interactors approach the installation, they can press the button on an old intercom to verbally identify an object of theirs and explain why it is significant to them. Based on this information and a photo of the participant taken furtively, the system generates a short speculative dystopian story about the shared future of the person and the object.
Old intercom, part of the work “Uchronie” (2024)/Crédit : Chloé Rondeau.
At the end of the process, a surreal portrait generated by AI and inspired by the interaction is displayed. The last thirteen of these portraits float above the installation on the screens of repurposed old iPhones. The AI’s stereotypical portrait aesthetics highlight the shortcomings of current generative models, while at the same time foreshadowing the radical social changes that are soon to come.
Portraits generated by the installation and displayed on obsolete iPhones/Photo credit: Chloé Rondeau.
Ironically, the agent that produces both the narrative and the portrait is programmed to engage in a deeply self-critical introspection, often describing how our dependence on technology will lead to our downfall. Echoing Kodak’s 19th-century promise—“You press the button, we do the rest”—Uchronie reveals that, just as the supposed objectivity of photography was an illusion, AI-generated creations are also tainted by the biases inherent in generative systems.
Front view of the installation/Photo credit: Adil Boukind.
Rear view of the installation/Photo credit: Chloé Rondeau.
The display interface of the device consists of two cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors. Due to their age and analog composition, they significantly distort the digital signal. This serves as a reminder that all technologies—digital or otherwise—inevitably filter, frame, and transform their content. This mediarchaeological approach challenges our relationship with the materiality of obsolete technologies while encouraging reflection on the ecology—or even the geology—of technology. The intertwining of physical cables in the installation highlights our entanglement with the material world and highlights how the digital realm is inextricably linked to the tangible.
Detail of the wiring at the top of the installation/Photo credit : Chloé Rondeau.
Residuary
Residuary/Photo credit: Adil Boukind.
In addition to the two installations, the exhibition offered a retrospective look on the creation process, through the presentation of a “residuary” (translated from French “résiduaire”). Like an ossuary or a reliquary, the concept of the residuary is to accumulate samples of the residues generated by the creative practice.
Details of the residuary/Photo credit: Adil Boukind, Chloé Rondeau.
By reflecting on the act of collecting residue within this project, which is focused on its reuse, the artist applies the echoes of his practice to the research methodology. Thus, the preservation of residues offers a different way of understanding the creative process—one that goes beyond textual or media documentation. The hope is that this direct contact with the materiality of the project enables a sense of presence that is difficult to achieve through traditional modes of representation and artwork exhibition.
Bibliography
Niemeyer, K. (2014a). Introduction: Media and Nostalgia. In Media and Nostalgia, Yearning for the Past, Present and Future. Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137375889.
Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (First edition). PublicAffairs.
By transforming cultural debris into playful and poetic experiences, Jean-Philippe Côté (a.k.a. djip.co) reimagines technoresidual materiality through interactive artistic installations.
By de-scripting technological residues to invent new futures for them, he invites interactors to reconsider their relationships with the material world. While stemming from a critical reflection, his interactive installations are both poetic and playful, offering multi-layered experiences both on the interactive and the interpretative levels. One of the recurring themes in his work is the mirroring of visitor’s bodies. Through distorted, hybrid, and liminal representations of the self, he highlights the gap between who we are and how we present ourselves in a world that is heavily mediated by technology.
His works have been presented at prestigious events such as Ars Electronica, ISEA, FILE, Arte Laguna, ADAF, and in renowned venues such as the Arsenale in Venice, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, the Asia Culture Center in Gwangju, and the Museu do Amanhã in Rio de Janeiro.
Acknowledgements
Jean-Philippe would like to thank the team at the Hexagram Network and Hexagram-UQAM for their support during this residency. He also expresses his gratitude to Louis-Claude Paquin for the quality of his guidance, as well as to Jean Dubois, Yan Breuleux, and Alice Jarry, members of his doctoral jury.
