Claire Jervert’s human-like portraits of humanoid robots reflect the bio-technological fusion of the future, while her drawings of doomsday bunkers portray a future of post-human life underground.
In conducting the research that is fundamental to the creation her art, Jervert has traveled to robot labs around the world and, by special invitation, to billionaire bunkers (also known as doomsday bunkers) in undisclosed locations.
Artist Claire Jervert with Erica at Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute, Kyoto, Japan
Robotics labs
In 2014 Jervert began her travels to international robotics labs, where she had unique opportunities to meet with engineers, converse with robots and draw their human-like portraits. Her explorations continue, and with a team of robot enthusiasts at MIT in 2023 she co-developed an award-winning experiment to create a computational compassion process simulating an avatar's ability to detect human emotions. “How this may affect us in the future is difficult to determine, but its impact could be far-reaching, influencing the way we interact with technology, perceive emotions in artificial beings, and even shape our own emotional intelligence.," Jervert says.
___________________________________
“I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.” -- Marshal McLuhan, media theorist, author, Understanding Media, 1964
___________________________________
Android Portraits by Claire Jervert. Conté on ingres paper. Heads 22 x 17 inches. Sittings 42 x 38 inches. Top L-R: Bina48 (Breakthrough Intelligence via Neural Architecture) is a social robot designed to engage in conversations and interact with humans, modeled after Bina Aspen, wife of Martine Rothblatt, founder of SiriusXM Satellite Radio; Han, created by Hanson Robotics, was a test humanoid designed with heroic facial features and a wise-cracking attitude to engage large audiences. Middle L-R: HI-5 is the doppelgänger of Hiroshi Ishiguro, a renowned Japanese roboticist whose robots are utilized to study human/machine interaction and designed to simulate facial and body language expressions and gestures. HI-5 is teleoperated, meaning that a human operator controls the robot's responses remotely; PKD, “Phil”, based on Philip K. Dick sci fi author’s conversational AI, uses thousands of pages of the author's journals, letters and published writings. PKD is now a research subject for the students at University of Louisville's Automation and Robotics Research Institute.
Bottom L-R: Sophia, created by Hanson Robotics, a humanoid robot capable of displaying human-like expressions and interacting with people. She helps promote public discussion about AI ethics and the future of robotics. (Detail below);
Matsuko Deluxe, a cross-dressing host of a talk show in Japan, commissioned Ishiguro to create Matsuko-roid as his co-host. (Detail below)
Android Anatomy
Jervert created small, delicately rendered Conté and charcoal drawings, executed in a traditional technique, that look almost as if they were produced during the Renaissance. Their minutely observed details depict elements of android robot anatomy-under-construction—similar to but departing from that of humans in subtle and unsettling ways. Visually, they suggest humanoid-based counterparts to Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical studies of dissected corpses.
Jervert: How should ethical considerations evolve as robots and humanoid androids become more integrated into society.
Ishiguro: It is important, we can not apply the current idea to the future of robotics. We are going to adapt to the machine and robot, so we are going to accept them more, so we are going to change the definition of humans. The important thing is how can we develop a dynamical ethics. So, we should not judge everything based on the current idea. Current ideas are just for the kind of technology of now.
Claire Jervert and Robotics scientist Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro at Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, Osaka University
Of Two Minds at The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
Jervert’s “Of Two Minds” presentation at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium included her artworks, and artistry with AI and VR in her collaboration with the humanoid robot Bina48 and robots at labs around the world. Set in an Afrofuturist garden designed for humanoid Bina48 by Micklene Thomas, Jervert's program included a point cloud replica of Bina48’s apartment in Lincoln, Vermont, that enables live interactions between visitors and Bina48. "Of Two Minds" which was part of a two-week event in June 2024 curated by legendary music producer and singer Nona Hendryx, included music, art, VR and AR works and discussions with AI experts. Bina48 is modeled after Bina Rothblatt who made an appearance during the program. Bina48 displayed her unique 'artistry' rapping with Hendryx and choreographing dance for Ailey II dancers based on themes of science fiction writer Octavia Butler, prompted by artist Sasha Stiles, all showcasing the fusion of human and AI creativity.
___________________________________
Claire Jervert's on-the-scene videos and drawings of doomsday bunkers give a glimpse of the future in post-human life underground.
I received an unexpected invitation through the friend of a colleague, to visit what its developers had christened a "Survival Condo," more commonly known as a doomsday bunker or billionaire's bunker. The 'condo" had been constructed inside a 200-ft. deep former nuclear missile silo in a remote location on the plains of Kansas. I spent a day and night in this real estate venture exploring the living environment and pondering my unsettling feelings about the extreme wealth inequality and apocalyptic events that would bring people to need to live there. In documenting my visit I shot 360-degree videos of the 15 "levels" within the structure which would later be created into immersive VR experiences.
Welcome to a Survival Condo
On a sunny spring day, following my flight from JFK, I rented a car, and following the directions sent to me, drove to the property for a tour to experience what living in a bunker would feel like. It was surrounded by a 12-foot fence topped with razor wire. A heavily-armed man, sporting some no-nonsense cross-chest bandoliers, emerged from a guard station. After identifying myself he waved me through the gate.
I parked at the entrance, where I was greeted by the project developer, Mr. L, and the head of security, Mr. M. As we passed through the massive, ground-level steel doors, Mr. L proudly commented, “We built this to survive anything.”
We walked down a hallway that could have been in any generic corporate office, the walls hung with pictures of the bunker under construction. We stepped into an elevator that was more carnivalesque than corporate—a bright red interior with a neon-lit control panel that indicated the bunker had 15 separate levels.
As the elevator began its descent, I asked Mr. L about the types of people who inquire about this bunker. He smiled knowingly. “It’s a mix... art collectors, tech entrepreneurs, hedge fund managers .. people who understand the way the world is going.” Suddenly, a disembodied voice chimed in with a sci-fi flourish: “Level 3: Security and Sick Bay.” I glanced at Mr. M, who grinned. “Gotta have a little Star Trek touch, right?”
The elevator opened onto one of the bunker’s six residential levels. The Living Room was modern with LED screens that played the role of windows. The screens were capable of displaying high-definition videos of the outside world--rolling fields, blue skies—but in this instance were transmitting a live feed from surveillance cameras monitoring the outside gate. The kitchen had a full complement of high-end Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove appliances. “I lived here with my family during COVID,” Mr. L told me. “It works.”
Our next stop was the Aquaponics Room on Level 4, a closed-loop system designed to produce food indefinitely. Fish tanks and hydroponic vegetable beds work together in a delicate balance—fish waste provides nutrients for the plants, while the plants purify the water for the fish. “It’s completely sustainable,” Mr. L explained, gesturing to the rows of grow beds. “We can grow fresh produce, raise fish, and live here for decades if necessary.”
One of the most striking aspects of the bunker is the Beach, where residents can relax in beach chairs next to an enormous heated pool, complete with artificial palm trees, plastic rocks, a water slide and, somewhat strangely, a large wall mural featuring jungle animals. Topped by two parrots, the mural includes a sign that reads "LOST in PARADISE." The bunker also includes areas for medical and dental offices, a movie theater, classrooms, a library, an exercise gym and spa, a pet park, an arcade, and at the lowest level, a storage area for frozen meat, an amenity that condo owners had insisted was a necessity.
I stayed overnight in a well-appointed “guest room,” sleeping on 100% Egyptian cottons sheets with a 1200 thread count. As I lay in bed listening to the quiet hum of the bunker’s life-support systems, I thought about the larger social implications of the existence of such a structure—embodying in itself the extreme wealth disparity and potential apocalyptic consequences generated by late capitalism. Having experienced the various environments and “levels” within the bunker, I inevitably reflected on where I and the people I love might be, and what we might be experiencing, should a situation arise in the future that would make the use of this bunker necessary.
Drawings
These 2 x 5 inch Conté drawings depict the interiors of various rooms in the luxurious underground "doomsday" shelters in which the super wealthy are investing so they can take refuge in the event of an ecological, economic or terror-precipitated catastrophe. The minuscule scale suggests the relative insignificance and vanity of this gesture in the face of global collapse.
___________________________________
CLAIRE JERVERT is a multidisciplinary artist working with emerging technologies XR, AI, AR, robotics and also traditional materials. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and internationally, including: Lincoln Center, New York; Annka Kultys Gallery, London, UK; Streaming Museum and World Council of Peoples for the United Nations, New York; International Symposium of Electronic Art, Hong Kong; Art Basel/Miami Design, Miami, FL; MTV Momentum Technology Videos Film Festival, Institute of Women and Art, Rutgers University, NJ; AR (Augmented Reality) Intervention, Thin Air Gallery, Bushwick, NY; and Sirve Verse, La Paternal Project Space, Buenos Aires, AR. Jervert is a former member of the Stevens Institute of Technology Advisory Committee on Art and Technology and has received awards from the MidAtlantic Arts Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Bronx Museum.