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Nickii Schamborski

CyberCindy

2025 · Single-channel video

CyberCindy is a single-channel video by Nickii Schamborski, 2025. Shown at Voltaje Festival (2025); Open Studios (2025); AT/SP x Ars Electronica Campus Exhibition (2026); More than Meets AI (artists in disguise) (2026).

AI-generated image: a smiling child in purple armour holding a sword rides a purple dinosaur among other dinosaurs in a mountain landscape. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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AI-generated image: a child with large purple butterfly wings and a pink feather coat stands under a blossoming arch, a second child beside them and a pig to the right. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Screen recording: an AI image generator listing style percentages, next to a generated image of a child in a dark blue dress standing in a doorway that opens onto a mountain lake. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Printed childhood photographs of a blond child spread out on a wooden table. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Screen recording of the Stable Horde web interface: a childhood photograph is partly masked for inpainting, with a text prompt above. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Screen recording of Photoshop: a generated image of a furry, big-eyed creature in a suit standing beside a child with a tiara seated on an ornate throne. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Hands cut a printed childhood photograph with scissors above a pile of other family photos. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Screen recording: a folder of childhood photos with caption text files, and a text editor describing one photo as a young person with long hair sitting on a boat. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Childhood photograph: a smiling child with long blond hair, arms crossed over a bare chest, in front of a stone wall. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Childhood photograph: two children sit side by side on a bench, one with an arm around the other. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Screen recording of an image generation tool: a childhood portrait of a smiling blond child, surrounded by a transparent area to be filled in, with the prompt 'Beautiful queer utopia'. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Screen recording of an image generator producing neon-pink images of people in leather jackets and pink trousers in front of a city skyline. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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Title card: the word CyberCindy in pink and green letters on a dark purple background. CyberCindy (2025) by Nickii Schamborski.
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About the work

Starting as a simple tutorial, this film follows Cyber Cindy's journey to reimagine their childhood through AI, crafting visions of queer belonging and freedom beyond rigid gender norms. While exploring and questioning their own queer desires through technology, they expose AI's role as a contemporary oracle, a system that claims omniscience while concealing its military origins and economic interests. Challenging both the faith placed in AI and its perpetuation of structural hierarchies, the film reveals how technological systems not only struggle with complex identities, but actively reinforce power structures and conceal their roots in military development and their profit-driven agendas.

Zur Arbeit

Der Film beginnt mit einem einfachen Tutorial und folgt Cyber Cindy auf einer Reise, um die eigene Kindheit durch KI neu zu erfinden und dabei Visionen von queerer Zugehörigkeit und Freiheit jenseits starrer Geschlechternormen zu entwickeln. Während they mit Hilfe der Technologie ihre eigenen queeren Sehnsüchte erforschen und hinterfragen, entlarven they die Rolle der KI als zeitgenössisches Orakel - ein System, das Allwissenheit vorgibt und gleichzeitig seine militärischen Ursprünge und wirtschaftlichen Interessen verbirgt. Der Film hinterfragt sowohl den Glauben an KI als auch ihre Aufrechterhaltung von strukturellen Hierarchien und zeigt, wie technologische Systeme nicht nur mit komplexen Identitäten zu kämpfen haben, sondern auch aktiv Machtstrukturen verstärken und ihre Wurzeln in der militärischen Entwicklung und ihren profitorientierten Agenden kaschieren.

Details

Year
2025
Type
Single-channel video
Specs
HD, stereo sound, 07:42 min, English
Direction
Nickii Schamborski
Camera
Nickii Schamborski
Editing
Nickii Schamborski

Shown at

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