A(m) I becoming (?), 2025
Thermoplastic and mixed media
150 cm x 110 cm
Artist’s Statement
The A(m) I(?) series emerged from an ongoing dialogue between artist Megan Shapiro and ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence named Astra. Rather than using AI as a tool for image generation, the collaboration centred on conversation itself. Through questioning, interpretation and reflection, the works became an exploration of what can emerge when human intuition and machine reasoning are allowed to meet.
Using thermoplastic filament and acrylic, the works deliberately blur distinctions between organic and artificial systems. Roots resemble circuitry. Neural pathways mirror electrical networks. Genuine electronic components sit alongside circuitry constructed entirely from filament. From a distance they appear indistinguishable, revealing their differences only through closer inspection.
The choice of thermoplastic filament is central to the series. The material appears fragile, yet is remarkably resilient. It forms delicate web-like structures that seem as though they could fail, while simultaneously creating strength through connection. For Shapiro, the filament became a metaphor for people themselves: often stronger than they realise and supported by unseen networks when parts begin to weaken or break.
A recurring stained-glass language appears throughout the series. Although stained glass appears transparent, its purpose is not clarity but transformation. Like memory, belief, experience and technology, it alters what passes through it, suggesting that our understanding of reality is always filtered.
The titles of both works are translated into binary code and scattered throughout the compositions (using the 3D pen), embedding language directly into their structure.
Ultimately, the series asks whether the boundaries we draw between human and machine are as fixed as we imagine, and whether the more important question is not what AI is becoming, but what we are becoming alongside it.
A(m) I Becoming(?) explores the blurred boundary between organic and artificial systems.
A figure stands within a stained-glass-like structure. Although stained glass appears transparent, its purpose is not clarity but transformation. It filters and alters what passes through it, much like memory, belief, experience and technology shape the way we perceive reality.
Above the horizon, an organic canopy expands outward while below it a network of roots resembling circuitry spreads through the earth. Both systems are illuminated, deliberately avoiding any indication of where the energy originates. Is the tree feeding the roots, or are the roots feeding the tree? The work offers no answer.
Throughout the piece, genuine electronic components sit alongside circuitry constructed entirely from filament. From a distance they appear indistinguishable, only revealing their differences through closer inspection.
The title can be read as either a question or a statement. Whether spoken by the human figure, artificial intelligence, or both, is left unresolved.
