(Very) Neural System
2024
by Martina Pizzigoni
Interactive AI Installation
AI Models / Unreal Engine / Metahuman / NVIDIA Audio2Face / Python Scripts
(Very) Neural System is an interactive installation that investigates
the layered relationship between the individual and their hybrid habitat -
both physical and digital. It explores how contemporary identity is shaped
by our entanglement with data-driven systems
and algorithmic environments.
MAalex® prototypes frictions, not solutions. Side effects may include identity dissolution, critical thinking, and recursive grief.
At the core of the work is a digital avatar:
a doppelgänger constructed to mirror the artist’s appearance, voice, gestures and conversational patterns. This simulated persona is generated from data scraped from major tech platforms, producing an unsettling yet familiar presence that the viewer can interact with through motion sensors and reactive dialogue.
The visual layout of the installation consists of supplementary visual layers aimed at exposing
the inner workings of the AI Black box (its datasets, code and logic) offering
a transparent counter-narrative to the myth of the General AI.
By demystifying the algorithmic core, the work challenges viewers to reconsider
the performativity and constructed nature of “intelligence.”
Produced during the Critical Data course led by PhD Manuela Naveau
(Very) Neural System was developed within the BIP Program, and received an Honorary Mention
at the first edition of Ars Electronica Festival 2024 Campus Award.
In 2025, the project is being further developed during a research residency at the University of Tsukuba (Ibaraki, Japan), within Yoichi Ochiai’s Digital Nature Group, focusing on real-time interaction
through motion capture, expanded behavioral mapping and embodied AI communication.
EXHIBITIONS
• Datamorphosis, Elektron festival 2024, Esch-sur-Alzette, (LUX)
• Nous, Ars Electronica Festival 2024, Linz, (AT)
• de____cloud, WIP Festival 2024,Nicosia, (CY)
• Pop Chaos, Recto VRso ar Laval Virtual 2025, Laval, (FR)
• Da Fest, International Digital Art Fest 2025, Sofia, (BG)
PUBLICATIONS
Welt der Frauen, Interview with Sophia Lang (2024).
Feminist AI at Interface Cultures Linz. Paper presentation Netzwerk. Frauen - und Geschlechterforschung NRW, Essen, Germany by Manuela Naveau, Alexander Wöran (2024)
MOST Magazine, review by Joachim Aagaard Friis (2024).
WGI.World, review by Maja Ćirić (2024).
LINKS & DOCUMENTATION
• Exhibitions highlights on "tour" (Linz, Cyprus)
• Poster presentation at the University of Luxembourg (2024)
• BIP on Critical Data
AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine • AI • Identity • Interaction • Installation • Python • Unreal Engine
MAALEX
ARTIST & CURATORIAL DUO
AUSTRIA / ITALY