One and Three Objects, and An Attempt at Exhausting the Object
Ziyang Wu + Simon Meng
2024
Live generated interactive AI system (Apple, hammer, lock and key, clock, mirror, hairpin, tree branches, stone, graphic card, mobile phone, floppy disk)

一个与三个物，和一次穷尽某个物的尝试
武子杨 + 蒙胜宇
2024
实时生成交互人工智能系统（苹果、锤子、锁与钥匙、闹钟、镜子、发卡、枪、汽车、国际象棋、药、树木枝干、石头、显卡、手机、软盘）

This work is inspired by Joseph Kosuth's One and Three Chairs and Georges Perec's An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, exploring the multiple definitions of objects in the era of non-human-centric perspectives and artificial intelligence. The project is divided into two parts:
本作品以约瑟夫·科苏斯的《一把和三把椅子》和乔治·佩雷克的《一次穷尽巴黎某处的尝试》为灵感，探索物体在非人类中心主义和人工智能时代的多重定义。作品分为两部分：

1. "One and Three Objects": Participants select any object and place it at the center of the platform. Through a camera, the AI captures and generates three dimensions of content about the object:
- Human visual understanding of the object (an image of the object)
- Machine understanding of the object (vector information, data)
- A knowledge graph of the object (genealogy/relationship map).

1.《一个与三个物》：参与者选择任何一个物体放置于平台中央，AI通过摄像机抓取并生成关于此物体的三个维度的内容：
- 人类对此物体的视觉理解（物体的图像）
- 机器对此物体的理解（Vector信息，数据）
- 此物体的知识图谱（谱系图/关系图）

2.”An Attempt at Exhausting the Object”:
The AI agent will, based on the selected object and knowledge graph from the first part, autonomously search for information related to this object, list attributes (such as color, material, origin, year, model, etc.), political, economic, social, and cultural background, and more importantly, the abstract, neglected, hidden, and even imaginary information. Then the agent will automatically generate detailed descriptions and continuously produce images/videos until the "possibilities" of this object are "exhausted," which also signifies the "exhaustion" of the AI agent's contextual comprehension capabilities. Each new generation of images/videos is a certain "expansion" of the object's definition, an ongoing attempt to exhaust its intricate complexities.

2.《一次穷尽某个物体的尝试》：
AI agent将基于第一部份中被选中的物体以及知识图谱，自行搜索包括此物体的相关的信息，列出属性（如颜色、材质、产地、年份、型号等）、政治经济社会文化背景，特别是抽象的、被忽视的、被隐藏的、甚至是幻想的信息。然后agent将自动生成详细描述，并不断生成图片/视频，直至此物体的可能性”被“穷尽”，也是此AI agent对于上下文理解能力的“穷尽”。每一次新的图片/视频生成，都是对此物体的定义的某种“扩充”，都是将其千丝万缕的复杂性继续试图穷尽。

This project attempts to explore:
1. What is the "One and Three Chairs" today? In the context of non-anthropocentrism, coexistence and competition between AI and humans, what is the new definition of an "object"?
2. What kind of generation occurs when AI reaches a state of exhaustion (for example, when it hits the limits of contextual comprehension capabilities)? What does the exhaustion of generation/production mean? What are the possibilities of “abundance” (since such abundance could not be produced in the pre-AI era)?
3. In a context where everything adheres to precision, conciseness, transparency, and speed, are there alternative possibilities for knowledge production? Is it possible to have opacity, intimacy, complexity, abstraction, and loss of control? If so, what would happen?

此项目试图探索：
1. 今天的“一把和三把椅子”是什么？在非人类中心主义、AI与人类共存与互博的背景下，一个“物体“的定义究竟是什么？
2. 当AI的exhaustion出现时（比如抵达上下文极限时），会产生怎样的生成？exhaustion下的生成/生产代表什么？大量（abundance）有怎样的可能性？（因为在前AI的时代无法产生这样的abundance）
3. 在一切遵循精确、简介、透明、速度的背景下，知识生产是否有alternative的可能性？不透明性、亲密性、复杂性、抽象、失控是否存在可能？如果可能，会发生什么？

Context 背景

"One and Three Chairs" is an installation art piece created by Joseph Kosuth in 1965, which includes: a real chair, a photograph of a chair, and a dictionary definition of the word "chair" in print. This work is also one of the representative pieces of conceptual art and systems art. The intention of this work is to provoke the audience to think about the meaning represented by "chair": is it an object (the physical entity of the chair)? Is it a reproduced image (the photograph of the chair)? Or is it a concept shared by the general public (the textual definition)?

《一把和三把椅子（One and Three Chairs）》是1965年由约瑟夫·科苏斯（Joseph Kosuth）创作的装置艺术作品，其中包含：一把真实的椅子、一把椅子的照片，以及一篇关于“椅子“这个词的字典定义纸本。此作品也是观念艺术和系统艺术的代表作之一。此作品意图引发观众去思考“椅子”所代表的含义：究竟是一个实存物件（椅子物理实体）？是一个再现的图像（椅子照片）？还是一个普罗大众都共有的概念（文字定义）？

“An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris” is a short book by Georges Perec written in October 1974 and published in 1975. It is a collection of observations which Perec wrote as he sat in Saint-Sulpice Square in Paris. Rather than describing impressive or notable things such as the architecture, Perec aims to describe all the things that usually pass unnoticed – “infraordinary”: the humdrum, the non-event, the everyday. He spent three days recording everything to pass through his field of vision: the people walking by; the buses and driving-school cars caught in their routes; the pigeons moving suddenly en masse, as if in accordance to some mysterious command; the wedding (and then funeral) at the church in the center of the square; the signs, symbols, and slogans littering everything; and the darkness that eventually absorbs it all.

《一次穷尽巴黎某处的尝试（An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris）》是乔治·佩雷克 (Georges Perec) 于 1974 年 10 月撰写并于 1975 年出版的一本短片。佩雷克坐在巴黎圣叙尔皮斯广场上写作。佩雷克的目标不是描述令人印象深刻或值得注意的事物（例如建筑），而是描述所有通常被忽视的事物 - ”infraordinary” : the humdrum, the non-event, the everyday（“平凡中的非凡”：日常琐事、非事件、日常）。他花了三天时间记录他视野中的一切：路过的人们；陷入路线中的公交车和驾校汽车；突然成群移动的鸽子；广场中心教堂的婚礼（然后是葬礼）；遍布一切的标志、符号和口号；最终将一切吞噬的黑暗。