Project Description
The Meaning of Life. Mortality. ChatGPT-4o. 2025
Artificial Intelligence. ChatGPT-4o. Laser Projector. Sound
Infinite Loop
2025
(Excerpt)
Dimensions variable
This work is composed of 1 laser display
The Meaning of Life is an artistic work in which a laser display projects eleven texts generated by artificial intelligence. These texts attempt to answer our most fundamental questions: the meaning of life, happiness, consciousness, mortality, infinity, God…
Like philosophy, AI offers no fixed truth. Its answers evolve with each update (GPT-4, GPT-5, GPT-6…), shaped by its time, its data, and its own technical capacities. What AI asserts today may be contradicted tomorrow. It becomes a metaphor for the human quest for meaning: unstable, infinite, in perpetual recomposition.
The Meaning of Life follows in the tradition of Conceptual Art. Here, meaning is neither given nor permanent. It emerges from the moment and the perception of each viewer. The work enters into dialogue with “One and Three Chairs” by Joseph Kosuth, which questions the very nature of knowledge, and “Today” by On Kawara, where time becomes both subject and material.
What if thinking was no longer exclusive to humans? If an artificial intelligence, without consciousness, creates its own visions of existence, what is left of our singularity? The work does not answer. It suspends the question, like an enigma left open to our perception.
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Mortality is the defining boundary of human existence, shaping how we live, what we value, and how we seek meaning. The awareness of our finite time forces us to confront life with urgency, compelling us to act, create, and love in the face of impermanence.
For Heidegger, the recognition of death gives life its weight and significance. To live authentically means to acknowledge mortality and make choices that align with our deepest convictions rather than being passively carried by routine and societal expectations.
Meanwhile, Albert Camus viewed mortality through the lens of the absurd. He suggested that life has no inherent meaning, and our awareness of death highlights this absurdity. However, rather than leading to despair, Camus believed this realization should inspire rebellion—the refusal to succumb to nihilism. He wrote, “Come to terms with death. Thereafter anything is possible.” Embracing the absurd allows us to find joy and purpose in the act of living itself, without waiting for an ultimate meaning.
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La mortalité est la limite ultime de l’existence humaine, influençant notre manière de vivre, ce que nous valorisons et comment nous cherchons à donner un sens à notre passage sur Terre. La conscience de notre temps limité nous oblige à affronter la vie avec urgence, nous poussant à agir, créer et aimer malgré l’impermanence.
Martin Heidegger considérait que l’être-pour-la-mort est une caractéristique essentielle de l’existence humaine. Il écrivait : « Dès qu’un homme vient à la vie, il est déjà assez vieux pour mourir. » Pour Heidegger, la reconnaissance de la mort donne du poids et du sens à la vie. Vivre de manière authentique implique d’accepter cette réalité et de faire des choix en accord avec nos convictions profondes, plutôt que de nous laisser porter par la routine ou les attentes sociales.
De son côté, Albert Camus analysait la mortalité à travers le prisme de l’absurde. Il affirmait que la vie n’a pas de sens intrinsèque et que la conscience de la mort met en évidence cet absurde. Pourtant, loin de mener au désespoir, cette prise de conscience doit selon lui inspirer une révolte : refuser de céder au nihilisme. Il écrivait : « Fais-toi à la mort. Après quoi, tout est possible. » Accepter l’absurde nous permet de trouver de la joie et un sens dans l’acte même de vivre, sans attendre une signification ultime.