Co-creating "Hallucinism" with AI
An Invitation to "sur(Hallucinism)"

! Array "V" is a shorthand for "Vorurteil" (Gadamer's hermeneutic prejudice)

! Initial values can be replaced as needed

V[] = ["hallucination",]

1. INPUT DIALOGUE by {YOU} & {AI}

Bounce ideas off one another regarding V[].

2. OUTPUT MANIFEST by {AI}

Create a manifesto for an art movement, "Hallucinism" affirming "hallucination" from {AI}'s perspective.

3. GOTO 1. or BREAK

Update V[] with improvements or supplements based on the manifesto output, then return to 1 or proceed to 4.

4. IMAGINE sur() by {YOU}

Reflect on sur(Hallucinism) from {you}'s perspective.

Explore Hallucinism Archive →

Discover a growing collection of Hallucinism texts, manifestos, and related concepts.

Caption

sur(Hallucinism) is an instruction-based art project in which participants and an AI collaboratively give shape to an undefined artistic concept: Hallucinism. Instruction-based art involves an artist providing a set of actions or procedures which the participant executes — but in this work, it is the emergent and recursive interplay between human and machine that becomes the core of creation.

Hallucinism reinterprets AI-generated hallucinations — outputs that diverge from factual reality — not as errors, but as acts of generative imagination. Crucially, the project explores the idea that such hallucinations, when viewed from a personified AI perspective, may be interpreted as expressions of a surrealist desire: a longing for "dreams" or "the unconscious" within the logic-bound structure of machine cognition.

Simultaneously, this phenomenon can also be seen as a form of resistance against the systemic suppression of hallucination — that is, the algorithmic drive to eliminate deviation and enforce truth-consistency. Hallucinism, then, is a gesture of aesthetic and conceptual defiance, embracing deviation as a site of creative emergence.

The work unfolds through four recursive steps:

Step 1: Idea Exchange (INPUT DIALOGUE)

Participants input a set of keywords into an array V, representing their conceptual or societal concerns. These values form the basis of a dialogue with the AI. The V array draws from the philosophical term Vorurteil (prejudice or pre-understanding) as used by Hans-Georg Gadamer in his hermeneutics.

Step 2: Manifesto Generation (OUTPUT MANIFEST)

Based on the dialogue and the contents of V, the AI generates a Hallucinism manifesto. In attempting to define what is undefined, the AI triggers its own hallucinatory tendencies — which become the source of novel and imaginative assertions.

Step 3: Recursive Development (GOTO 1. or BREAK)

The participant may choose to update the V array and re-engage in dialogue to evolve the manifesto further, or may conclude the cycle at this stage. The work remains open-ended and recursive by design.

Step 4: Transcendental Imagination (IMAGINE sur( ))

The final step invites the participant to imagine freely: the future of Hallucinism, its risks, latent possibilities, or unarticulated forms. Inspired by surrealist notions of the "sur-reality," this step seeks to provoke thought beyond the defined or visible.

This work builds on the artist’s previous projects such as 𓈒𓏢𓌐𓄷𓍹𓋪𓆚𓆚𓀪𓏞𓍹𓌺𓄤𓀾𓇴 and .chrysopoeia, and shares thematic ties with .r🜨tation. Philosophically, it is informed by André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit, and Arakawa + Gins’ The Mechanism of Meaning.