“eternal return / op.1 wonderful world” is an experimental film work, provoking a sense of obligation for the time being. The center of the work is an installation artwork of an Ape represented as an AI, indicating our biological and technological development. Along with the symbolic metaphor, the title pays homage to the philosophical theory of recurrence to navigate the imagination into an unbounded perception.

The Ape is based on a single photograph, applying a facial mapping animation to express detailed emotions. The vocal was recorded using the artist’s voice, delivering the message in a melodious narrative. The combined output has been programmed to play continuously through a single-board computer, connected to a CRT-TV.

The song was chosen from the third verse of ‘What a wonderful world’, which captures a moment of empathy in one’s life, where the richness of humanity takes place.

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow,

They’ll learn much more than I’ll never know,

And I think to myself what a wonderful world…

Yes, I think to myself what a wonderful world.

By establishing a contradiction of an AI Ape singing this human verse, the artist extends the imagination into a sense of feeling inside a man-made intelligence. What is it to feel? What is life? What are the values toward life? The screenplay engages the viewers to reflect on their thoughts over the future scenario, concluding with the furthermost point; what is our wonderful world?

As our technological development accelerates exponentially, the ethics of the individual and society will require an adaptation towards something we never know. The artwork connects the historical symbolism (of Apes), and modern materialism (of AI) with philosophical phrases (of Mankind), to question the zeitgeist in these times of rapidly shifting paradigms.