Artificial intelligence and mimetic regression: a few words about a Volkswagen commercial

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Published: Jun 30, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32334/oqnfp.2024n54a948
Keywords:
Artificial intelligence, contemporary aesthetics, Volkswagen commercial, Aesthetics

Main Article Content

Pedro Hussak van Velthen Ramos
Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ)

Abstract

This is an analysis of the Volkswagen car manufacturer's commercial in which the singer Maria Rita performs a duet with her mother, Elis Regina, resurrected thanks to the action of artificial intelligence (AI). The central hypothesis is that all the controversy surrounding the advertisement, which has largely been fought on social networks, is anchored in the fact that there is an aesthetic choice called here mimetic regression, so that all the criticism of the use of AI in this case resonates with Plato's criticism of mimesis in book X of The Republic. The article goes on to discuss contemporary authors, in particular Jean Baudrillard and Bernard Stiegler, who each in their own way mobilize the Platonic conceptual framework to think about the situation of the image in contemporary times, arguing that the antidote to mimetic regression would not be a "return to the real", but encouraging artists to learn how to program in order to propose a creative use of the images produced by AI.

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 32 No. 54 (2024): Dossier Philosophy of Technology II
Section
Articles
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Author Biography

Pedro Hussak van Velthen Ramos, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ)

He has a degree in philosophy from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (1996), a master's degree in philosophy from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (2000) and a doctorate in philosophy from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (2005). He is an Associate Professor IV in Aesthetics at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), where he was the coordinator of the Philosophy Graduate Program from September 2015 to September 2017. He also worked in the Postgraduate Program in Contemporary Studies in the Arts at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF) from 2009 to 2020. In 2014, he undertook a post-doctoral internship with a CAPES grant at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where he was also a visiting professor in March 2017. From 2018 to 2022, he took part in the CAPES-COFECUB program “Contemporary Aesthetics: Dialogue of Cultures”, a partnership between the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where he was able to hold various events and publications. Between 2018 and 2020 he was coordinator of the ANPOF Aesthetics WG. Between 2019 and 2021 he was deputy director of the Center for Advanced Studies (CEA) at UFRRJ, taking over as director in 2023. He has published several articles, as well as organizing events and publications in the field of aesthetics.

References

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacres et simulations. Paris: Galilé, 1981.

Chul Han, B. A salvação do belo. Tradução Gabriel Salvi Philipson. Petropólis : Vozes, 2019 (2015).

Flusser, Vilém. O mundo codificado. Tradução de Raquel Abi-Sâmara. São Paulo, Cosac Naify, 2007.

Krauss, Rosalind. Marcel Duchamp ou o campo imaginário. In: O fotográfico. Trad. Anne Marie Davée. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2002.

Mondzain, Marie-José. Le commerce des regards, Paris, Seuil, 2003.

_________________. Imagem, ícone, economia: as fontes bizantinas do imaginário contemporâneo. Tradução de Vera Ribeiro. Rio de Janeiro: contraponto, 2013 (1996).

Stiegler, Bernard. The discret image. In: Echographies of television: filmed interviews. Translated by Jennifer Bajorek. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002 (1996).