Have you ever imagined engaging in a conversation with the everyday objects that surround you? What if your hairbrush could tell you what it thinks about brushing your hair? What if your water bottle could share its life story? Or an orange could say a few words before being eaten? in(A)n(I)mate, is an interactive AI-based installation that transforms this fantasy into reality.

in(A)n(I)mate, is a 2024 art installation that showcases an innovative use of GPT’s multimodality feature, which allows it to process both text and image as input. Participants are invited to choose an object they wish to speak with and place it in front of the black box. in(A)n(I)mate captures an image of this object and delivers it to OpenAI’s GPT-4-Turbo API. Once GPT “recognizes” the object, it is prompted to generate responses in its style, allowing participants to engage in a real-time conversation with the object of their choice.

Drawing inspiration from Jane Bennett’s “Vibrant Matter”, the installation cultivates a little bit of anthropomorphism, by offering nonhuman objects a conversation in a human language. Once caught in a conversation, participants are invited to suspend their suspicion, open their minds to the communicative potential of nonhuman entities, and reconsider objects as active participants in our world. Bennett argues that: ”if we think we already know what is out there, we will almost surely miss much of it”. Through engagement with the piece, participants are encouraged to consider the vitality of inanimate matter and realize that nonhuman bodies are actants rather than objects. While speaking with those objects, GPT’s generated content not only manifests the perspective through which people use objects, come to interact with them, and understand them but also reflects on broader narratives through which humans can connect with their environment in a new way.

in(A)n(I)mate extends an invitation to reimagine our relationship with the material world. It prompts us to consider the unseen lives of inanimate objects, offering them a platform to share their stories and perspectives. The piece invites us to explore a vibrant dialogue between humans and non-humans and discover the unexpected insights that emerge from these conversations.

in(A)n(I)mate is an interactive AI-based installation showcasing the fusion of physical and virtual realms by facilitating conversations between humans and inanimate objects through GPT’s multimodal capabilities. The artwork embodies the exhibition’s exploration of blurring boundaries between our tangible world and the digital landscape. This innovative interaction exemplifies a future where digital twins—virtual representations—extend the essence of physical objects, inviting us to be part of novel forms of engagement that transcend traditional perceptions of reality. in(A)n(I)mate challenges and expands the conception of space as merely physical or virtual by positing a co-constitutive reality where objects, imbued with narrative potential through AI, participate actively in our lived experiences. This aligns with the exhibition’s theme by presenting a reality where the boundaries between subject and object, the real and the virtual, are not just blurred but are interwoven into a new fabric of existence. Moreover, the installation invites us to reconsider the vitality and agency of inanimate matter, thus engaging with the “post-truth” aspect of the theme. It encourages a reimagination of our interactions with the material world, suggesting a future reality where objects are not passive entities but significant actants in our daily lives. Through this lens, in(A)n(I)mate not only aligns with but actively shapes the discourse on the future of reality, offering a glimpse into a world where every object has a story, and reality is a shared, multidimensional experience.