"MIND. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain.
It's chief activity consists in the endeavor to ascertain it's own nature,
the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothing but itself to know itself with."
- Bierce as quoted by Minsky in Society of Mind

The goal of the Mai project is to explore the (im)possibilities of
using models of human intelligence, creativity and consciousness in art.

In a bit of an overzealous, megalomanic mood i decided to build an artbot that would generate
sound and image in a way not too different from how I/we do it ourselves.

Encapsulated in a century old tradition going from golems to Metropolis, I use the research
of some esteemed individuals and some of my own digital musings to try to catch a glimpse of this strange phenomenon called mind.
As my knowledge of the matter and my pogramming skills progress,
the state of the project will be probed in smaller performances and installations.

Of course creating an "artificial mind" seems a pretty hopeless quest. Despite the considerable advances in cognitive science, we are nowhere near creating such an entity, nor am I all that convinced I'd want us to.
However, many interesting approaches have been explored and some of them do give a glimpse of what goes on in the human mind.
Furthermore, by applying them in an appropriate way, such algorithms can make all the difference applied in an artwork.

A first outline of the project was published in the xmeda magazine, a publication by F0am, iMal, Nadine and OKNO.