William Watkins (Wwatkns)

The feeling of being human – with all of its intricate hopes, struggles, and fleeting emotions – seems so unique that we assume artificial intelligence could never replicate our experience. And while we devise systems for solving unfathomably complex problems, generating algorithmic creativity, and unlocking regenerative biological possibilities, we simultaneously cling to the power and originality of emotional feeling – believing it to be the irreplaceable source of what makes us human.

If the body is our shell for emotion and soul, can an artificial humanoid be another vessel for these thoughts and feelings – for human essence itself? If our ‘soul’ is the last stand between us and the machines, what happens when the soul becomes transferable? That we may see answers to these questions looks more real every year, and is perhaps a little frightening.

Emotional Shell uses introspective portraits of future selves to question what it means to be human, when the people around us are no longer human.