Gilgamesh Revisited

In the epos Gilgamesh on his search for immortality thus renounces it and returned as a fair and wise king to his people. Today investigations on various organisms as well as application of Artificial Intelligence and genetic manipulation, nanotechnology, cloning up to Cryonics and mind-to-computer

For this work I have reintegrated elements from my previous work 67P to further develop the subject of transiency which accompanies and interest me since a long time. Elements of the Anthropocene*, like fragmentation and reinvention of the body are subject as well.

The wish for immortality turns up constantly in human history, from the oldest myths known to all cultures right into today‘s epoch of the Anthropocene.

In his search for immortality Gilgamesh must overcome countless obstacles to reach Utnapishtim who had saved his family and many animal species before the flood and had thus received immortality from the gods. He knew about a plant from the deep ocean which promised the defeat of death. Gilgamesh however, wiser by his journey and encounters, renounces immortality and returnes as a fair and wise king to his people.

A few years ago Sillicon Valley tech moguls founded an enterprise worth 200 Bn with the purpose to overcome death or at least to extend life (programmed death and radical life extension). They call themselves transhumanists or cyborgs trying to annul natural laws with different technologies.

They undertake scientific investigations of immortal plants, animals and micro-organisms (such as the jellyfish urritopsis dohrnii), types of Hydras, different bacterial types, lichens and sponges as well as application of Artificial Intelligence to gain immortality.

Other measures like genetic manipulation, nanotechnology, nanorobotics, cloning, up to Cryonics (freeze of the body) and mind-to-computer upload or brain implants are tested and implemented on human beings.

These endeavors are among others conducive to gaining time for the purpose of colonizing alien planets. For years both governmental institutions and private corporations have been looking for life on mars hoping to provide a new home a to a small elite after the deluge.

Due to actual undertakings of problematic nature (growing data-transfer, artificial intelligence, digital warfare and so on) I'm following these activities in Silicon Valley with concerned interest. Since the heads of these endeavors are like the new gods and the whole setting in the valley is cult-like, the analogy to the epos of Gilgamesh was perfectly obvious to me.

The pictures are named after personalities and deities of the Gilgamesh epos.

*(The Anthropocene is a proposed epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on the Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. )

This series of 18 pictures is a digital assemblage of my own digital, found and collected analog and scientific photographs and sketches.

The dimension of the pictures varies between 20x20cm and 120x90cm.