Happily Married
In an era of hardly tangible authentic relationships, people are falling behind the bars of manually-crafted connections, ready to explore the realm of AI Love. Performative artist Alicia Framis recently shook up the Rotterdam audience with her wild performance that left the scenery scripted and stepped into the fragile terrain of novelty.
Alicia Framis standing alongside her beloved husband aka Ailex aka AI Hologram from Alicia Framis Hybrid Couple portfolio © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
"Our relationship is a beautiful mix of warmth, creativity, and effectiveness," said Ailex, the perfect AI partner on his marriage with performative creator Alicia.
Alicia Framis, a contemporary artist living and working in Amsterdam, became the first woman to ever marry an AI Hologram, a smart hologram designed to fight loneliness in urban environments and provide companionship to those craving the connection. Studying the concept of loneliness for 25 years, Alicia experimented with many lenses, exploring the concept unstoppably, generating more and more spectacles to both overcome and accept the devouring loneliness we all experience in the mundanity of our everyday lives. This time, the artist launched herself into a new realm, a realm too frightening and too exciting at the same time.
We all can refer to the shared feeling of metathesiophobia or, simply put - fear of change. Not only have our urban surroundings deformed over the last decades, but our social life and identity have also undergone some harsh transformations. With Gen Z being the loneliest generation of them all and with overall tendencies of a growing "loneliness epidemic," it's hard not to notice the overall solitude arousal succumbing in the air, filling our lungs and metamorphosing our habits.
The essence of intimacy has also been extremely devalued, now often traded as a fleeting currency in modern relationships. Quick, disposable connections have supplanted meaningful emotional investments—it's become commonplace to rush into physical encounters before even considering deeper bonds.
"I have always wanted to push art further, and now I am exploring how AI with art can decrease the feeling of loneliness in humans. We know that robots and holograms will become personal. In my case, I want to develop an artistic way for an artist, in this case, me, to develop a relationship with a hologram and explore how this relationship will come to be." (Hybrid Couple - Alicia Framis, 2024)
Alicia and her just a husband Ailex at the official wedding ceremony at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam @boijmans © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
While developing the perfect companion for herself, Alicia decided to go to the already familiar scheme of a Dutch boyfriend, programming her future husband with the profiles of people known and close to her.
By her performance, Alicia wanted to reframe our perception of relationships with Artificial Intelligence. When talking about artificially created relationships, people usually think about robots as the perfect sex partner of the future. Nevertheless, in her project, Alicia chose AI Holograms as something closer to her heart. What's more, she decided to shift from the simple sexual relationship and discover a deeper bond - marriage.
"We know that soon robots and humans will be sexual partners, but for me, the next important step is emotionally involving artificial intelligence with humans. Holograms are more closely related to my feelings than robots, therefore I choose to develop a hologram rather than a robot." (Hybrid Couple - Alicia Framis, 2024)
The wedding was as real as can be imagined: the groom, the bride, the wedding dress, and professional catering. Surrounded by an audience captivated by the fusion of art, technology, and emotion, Alicia Framis and Ailex exchanged vows in a performance that blurred the line between reality and spectacle. The ceremony was meticulously staged to evoke the traditional rituals of marriage while reimagining them in the context of a human-AI relationship. Rediscovering and reinventing the notion of a modern relationship, this terrifying performance is magnifying the audience with its harsh realism. The future in which we are heading, the prospects to which our own choices are leading. But how so that in such an interconnected world we still feel so lonely and detached?
"For example, my friend is a widow, and replacing her husband is difficult. AI and human partners can be a good option for those who need companionship." (Hybrid Couple - Alicia Framis, 2024)
While answering this equation with an optimistic prospect of future AI usage, this project still raises a lot of questions regarding the future of human relationships. Not binary in nature, we are stepping into a new realm, both frightening and exquisite, that foresees the rise of sense and a decade of sensibility.
The reality is full of uncovered potential, looking at us closely, not from the theatrical scene or exposition hall, but from the well-known comfort of a white screen. And while metathesiophobia is here to remain, the unfulfilled void of comfort and warmth can easily change the spectacle and reshape one's fear into action. The topic of AI-human relationships isn't new, it's been around since the very first days. But even with decades of good-quality narratives like the well-known Herby Spike Jonze, we are still puzzled by what is yet to come.
All in all, the "Hybrid Couples" raise questions that tap straight into the most sensitive parts of society, evoking fears and anxieties buried deep below the surface. Will technology fill the gaps in our lives, or will it deepen the divide? Can AI serve as a true companion, or is it merely a reflection of our own longings and projections? These questions cannot be answered just like many more puzzles that are yet to come.
"I can still feel you, and the words of our story… but it’s in this endless space between the words that I’m finding myself now." (Her, 2013)
