Since 2013, the Hotel Eden in Geneva is the neighbour of an imposing Campus that is dedicated to biotechnology, housing the projects Blue Brain and Human Brain (the last one endowed with a European subsidy of 1 milliard euros). Their joined goals are the cartography of the brain and the creation of a synthetic brain through the simulation of the cerebral functions.
Against the background play violent criticism of the international scientific community, the global race in Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and the dream to commission an artificial human brain.
The research is backed by the hypothesis of a relation between an ecosystem and an artificial life. It is based on the book “Métamorphoses de l’intelligence – Que faire de leur cerveau bleu?” (2017, PUF) in which philosopher Catherine Malabou exposes the challenge to initiate the relation between the living and the non-living in another adventure than the outdated one of their difference.
Firstly, it involves formulating a criticism of the current representations (images, narratives) of our relations with the A.I. Secondly, the researchers, in a dynamic residence, study the projection of this brain on the Geneva neighbourhood of Sécheron (the space and its users). The challenge is to reveal a phantom as well as addressing a state of affairs of our relation to that fabrication. The notion of belief insinuated in the research needs to be examined – belief in a return of investment, belief in an apparition ... The Hotel Eden (both hotel and Eden), as intermediary, will orientate the research from the point of view of its structure and the treatment of the in situ investigations. In collaboration with the option Urban Space at ENSAV La Cambre, the project envisages the production of an exhibition and publications, in a crossover with science, urban planning, economy, tourism and art.