{"id":29168,"date":"2023-09-12T23:23:42","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T15:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benayoun.com\/moben\/2023\/09\/12\/reified-absence\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T21:20:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T13:20:04","slug":"reified-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benayoun.com\/zh-hans\/2023\/09\/12\/reified-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"Reified Absence"},"content":{"rendered":"

3D Printed sculptures,
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Exhibition: <\/span>Cerveau Machine<\/span><\/i>, Le Cube Garges, 12 Sept. \u2013 27 Dec. 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Architecture and engineering: Eleanor Mila-Soline<\/span><\/p>\n

Curatorial Team: Le Cube Garges, France<\/span><\/p>\n

Values are chosen, embraced, and woven into the self. Yet what one subject holds close, another may refuse. <\/span>Reified Absence<\/span><\/i> gives form to this divergence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within a cubic Cartesian model, the negative space of an immaterial ethical asset is extracted and materialized through 3D printing. What was once intangible becomes physical, visible, exchangeable. Yet the value itself appears not as presence, but as void: a form revealed through what is missing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, absence becomes the means of inscription. The invisible takes shape as a gap, a hollow, a contour of belief and refusal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reified* Absence<\/span><\/i> is an extension of <\/span>Value of Values<\/span><\/i>. Human values are neurodesigned, crypto minted, bartered or traded. They are then converted by the Brain Workers or their owner into printed Twodees, or Neuro-Calligraphy, 3D-printed<\/span>\u00a0sculptures as <\/span>Threedees<\/span><\/i>, generated <\/span>Transactional Poetry<\/span><\/i>, or money.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*The reification process is inspired by Karl Marx, <\/span>Georg Luk\u00e1cs<\/span><\/a>, and Guy Debord. <\/span>Reified Absence<\/span><\/i> is part of the <\/span>Brain Factory<\/span><\/i> project initiated in 2015 by Maurice Benayoun.<\/span><\/p>\n

Value of Values<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Situated between art and neuroscience, <\/span>Value of Values<\/i><\/b> (VOV.ART) asks how something inherently formless, human abstraction, might be made visible. Values such as <\/span>LOVE<\/b>,<\/span> POWER<\/b>,<\/span> MONEY<\/b>,<\/span> COMPASSION<\/b>, or<\/span> INTELLIGENCE <\/b>do not exist as objects in the world, yet they shape perception, feeling, judgment, and action. Invisible yet operative, they structure how we inhabit reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Using electroencephalography (EEG), <\/span>Value of Values<\/i><\/b> translates these internal constructs into shifting visual forms. Participants wear an EEG headset and are invited to focus on one of 42 values embedded in the system. As they think of FREEDOM, LOVE, or POWER, their brain activity is converted into an evolving digital morphology.<\/span><\/p>\n

What emerges is not an illustration of a value, but its temporary appearance: a singular, unstable form produced at the intersection of thought, emotion, and individual experience. Each image differs from one participant to the next, forming a living archive of subjective value.<\/span><\/p>\n

These neural forms are then translated into 3D models and inscribed on the blockchain as NFTs. In this move, immaterial values enter circuits of exchange, ownership, and speculation. Ethical and emotional investments become tradable assets; symbolic language extends into <\/span>Transactional Poetry<\/i><\/b>; inner life is projected into market logic.<\/span><\/p>\n

As \u201c<\/span>Brain Workers<\/b>,\u201d participants become both producers and owners of the crypto-assets they generate. They may collect, exchange, or sell them, revealing the shifting and comparative value of values across individuals, cities, and cultures.<\/span><\/p>\n

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