Bio

Augment Humankind is the brainchild of Chris Fornesa, a multidisciplinary thinker and creative whose work sits at the intersection of art, data, and technology. As a trained data scientist, Chris understands the limits of converting human experiences into data. As such, their work as Augment Humankind revolves around extracting meaning and humanity from the mundane. Their interests include Filipino and racialized historical narratives, socioeconomic power dynamics, and human-computer interactions and collaborations.

What Is Human?

What truly makes us human? Is it what we build, what we feel, how we love, or why we exist?

The truth is that what constitutes humanity is ever-changing. Whether we discuss the ramifications of the stranglehold that the eugenicist ideology has had on society even into modernity or the quest to preserve cognitive function in the midst of technological change, there is much in the way of discourse that needs to be made on this question.

So, can we even harness the power of technology to further our own sense of humanity? If you ask me, we can. And it is my mission to explore mine, and your humanity alike. While current AI technologies have their limits, they can potentially be new ways to open our minds to new worlds, perspectives, and imaginations that we didn’t even know existed within us.

A Personal Experiment

Honestly, Augment Humankind spawned as an experimental persona. At first, I believed that this would perfectly encapsulate a business idea, until I realized that I didn't exactly know what to make a business about.

"Do I offer data analytics?"

"Should I make dashboards?"

"What do I do with my data science expertise and five years of corporate experience?"

Then I remembered, I loved making art, especially generative art even before I paid for a single generative AI subscription. Exhibit A, for instance.

"How about art?"

"Huh?"

"Yep, art."

"But AI and art... isn't that controversial?"

"So? Your work can speak for itself. No one thinks like you, we're all unique in the things that we accept or think about."

"Just be yourself. If you want to make Augment Humankind as an AI-assisted counterpart to Fornesus Art, then so be it."

So, here I am. So much internal dialogue, so many thoughts, and to this conclusion that I'm meant to make art and explore ideas in my own, unique way.

As socially conscious and intuitive as I may be, and as much as I may love drawing and painting physically, my reality is that my arthritis makes it difficult to hold even an iPad pencil for long periods of time, so thank goodness I can type fast. Also, my constant allergies, asthma and dry eyes are aggravated by my preferred art materials, everything from paper to charcoal to acrylic, they all trigger health issues in me.

Thus, I have decided that it's worth more to be creative within the constraints of my body than it is to simply stop for any reason.

The way I see it, it's simply more unethical for me to stop making art and to stop being creative just because my body struggles with traditional materials.

So here I am.