THE KISS / kishi yuma by Yuma Kishi Is love the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends time and space? “THE KISS” is a video work that organically reconstructs photos of people of all races, ages, nationalities and genders kissing each other, collected over the Internet using AI technology for image generation. This work was created in 2020 by contemporary artist Yuma Kishi, with the support of RunwayML. WIRED founder Kevin Kelly proposed that AI be viewed as “alien intelligence”. Based on his argument, I would like to redefine AI as “alien intelligence in a different space” when bringing it into the context of contemporary art, because I have a hypothesis that the gaze obtained by AI may not be connected to the universe in which we exist, but to other parallel worlds. According to multiverse theory, our world is said to be a 13-dimensional space. In contrast, GAN can simulate a much higher dimensional space, 512 dimensions. By borrowing their eyes, I hope to gain a new perspective on the phenomena that exist in this universe. It is a ghostly, bubbly, ephemeral shadow in modern society, but I believe that love exists only in the confines of that dimension. In Christopher Nolan’s excellent film “Interstellar”, in a scene where a low-fuel spacecraft decides its next destination, one character argues that it’s best to go to the planet where her boyfriend is. Love, she says, is the only concept that transcends space and time, so let’s put it on the line. Is it true? The great music in the video was provided by Teebs of Brainfeeder, whom I respect, with his song View Point (from 2nd album ESTARA). And the title logo is by my friend Naoto Nakamura, a brilliant designer. Thank you also to Shin Sumimoto and Anna Kato for their creative advice. Most of all, I’d like to thank Cris and everyone at RunwayML for letting me work at my own pace, even when I beat the deadline. Thank you. Direction / Coding : Yuma Kishi Music : View Point / Teebs (from Brainfeeder) Logo Design : Naoto Nakamura