My postdisciplinary artistic practice is based on the examination of consciousness, mental processes and artificial intelligence in relation to the socio-political issues of cognitive capitalism. Taking into account neurobiological and efforts in cognitive neuroscience, my practice deals with personalized phenomenology through the examination of one's own states of consciousness where I am both the subject and the object of examination. The problems of the mind / brain and its processes, structure and characteristics are elaborated by the methodical use of knowledge produced in the field of philosophy and results collected within cognitive science taking into account perception, imagination, language, memory, attention, reasoning and emotions.
The relationship and interconnectedness of psychological and economic states is reflected in synapses as the main currency in the age of cognitive capitalism.
Dead thinking
Aleksić is interested in various mediums, such as photography, video, installation, and performativity, which could be tracked in his interest in the experience, as a synthesis of modernistic techniques of collage and montage (exhibition as a medium) that he is thematizing in his artistic Ph.D. Consciousness as an Artistic Medium. Aleksić’s art-historical starting points include Dada, Surrealism, and the Conceptual Avant-garde. On the other hand, his philosophical interests are based on the Institutional Theory of Art and Institutional Critique, where he often refers to Lucy Lippard’s idea of dematerialization of an art object, with obvious shifts from concepts to the stream of consciousness and experience. Artist’s post-disciplinary artistic practice is based on examination of consciousness, mental processing, and AI, in relation to socio-political issues of cognitive capitalism, such as acquiring knowledge, education, dematerialized labor, and surveillance capitalism.
The exhibited installation develops in the direction of a critique of the simulation of social relations, where even "democratic" decisions have lost their causal power, and political discourse along with art serves as a kind of political decor. This work also deals with the nature of the presentation of the "natural world", through a deliberate emphasis on the presentation of such natural artifacts. The artist problematizes the issue of naturalizing the phenomenon of interpersonal relations and the problems that the pandemic brought with it. Also, the installation should be observed through the relationship between mental and physical space, i.e. how the physical substance (human brain) can comprehend the imaginative space, and how the phenomenon of colour and meaning is constructed in the brain accordingly.
Interview
What is the language in common for the young people today?
The common language of young people is a muscle that is pink in color and soft to the touch.
What does the process of making one of your pieces look like?
Given my hyperproductivity, the mode of emergence depends on several factors, and ranges from the flow of thought itself to often collaborative projects involving a whole network of people and institutions.
Which challenges have you faced while making art as you know it?
How to survive Tomorrow.
Do you consider yourself an artist, and what does that word mean to you?
More than autonomy less than independence.
What is your escape from reality? Do you even have a need to escape from something?
The belief that art will save the world.
What does the word innovative mean to you?
To be innovative means to use the language of emancipation to justify the strategies of neoliberal capitalism. Being innovative means merging Judith Butler and Margaret Thatcher.
Do you have a plan for the future? Where can your artistic practice take you?
My artistic practice took me to Vienna. And from a cool philosophy student on my parents' budget, I became a gas worker. These are people who bring the plague, and they are not cool enough to be included in some academic research, because racism in America is a priority.
I would like the future to take me somewhere on the coast.
What made the biggest influence on you to become what you are today and do what you do now?
Looks like Nana Lela.
How would you describe Serbian (Balkan or European-depends on where you live and work) contemporary cultural scene?
Friendly.
In which way does your creative process shape you or changes you as a person, if it does at all?
Absolutely! This is exactly what I thematized in the work Hyperplastic through the issues of neuroplasticity. How the lived experience is "engraved" in our brain.