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"I’m sorry I made you feel that way" by Martina Menegon

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I'm sorry I made you feel that way (2023) is an interactive experience and performative self-portrait exploring new possibilities for empathy and care for our hybrid selves. Martina Menegon’s biometric data collected daily via a wearable smart ring device is linked with an artificial avatar generated via Machine Learning AI. The physical body state - specifically in connection to stress and tiredness - has an immediate and direct impact on its virtual extension. When physical bodily needs are neglected and fatigue or stress sets in, the AI self-body deteriorates, exhibiting fragmented and abstract behaviour and making interactions increasingly challenging.

In linking very personal biometric data to an AI generated avatar, I'm sorry I made you feel that way draws attention to our hybrid corporeality and how we can foster care both offline and, by extent, online. This intimate and intricate bond creates a new sense of responsibility for our virtual extensions and nurtures a unique emphasis on self-care that extends beyond our physicality.

Martina Menegon (she/her - Italy, 1988) is a digital artist, curator, and educator based in Vienna.

She is Senior Artist and Lecturer in the Transmedia Art department at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where she teaches "Digital Design and Virtuality". Additionally, she is Vice Director and Curator at the CIVA Festival for New Media Art and is the Head of Extended Reality and Curator for the “Area for Virtual Art“ on behalf of sound:frame.