intellectual baptism

Intellectual Baptism is about a shifting progression from informational knowledge toward a more simplified sense of spiritual wisdom. It uses text from theories of machine intelligence that states: “There are a plethora of credible scenarios for achieving human-level intelligence in machines. We will evolve and train a system combining massively parallel neural nets with other paradigms to understand language and model knowledge.”

As the type evolves in baptismal waters from left to right, it becomes more abstract and less legible, representing the way our felt sense of spiritual wisdom exists beyond articulation through language.

This piece was created over 20 years before I ever heard of “AI.” Today, the idea resonates even more. Certainly, intelligence is important. But let’s also make time for developing and nourishing our somatic, creative felt sense and spiritual wisdom.

“Certainly, intelligence is important. But let’s also make time for developing and nourishing our somatic, creative felt sense and spiritual wisdom.”

To create this piece, I formed the type in Adobe Illustrator, printed it on watercolor paper, then used watercolor paint for the water texture, and then re-scanned and finalized the composition in Photoshop.