Lana Wachowski (b. 1965, USA)
Lilly Wachowski (b. 1967, USA)
The Matrix: Reloaded, 2003

Neo: You’re not human, are you?

The Oracle: Well it’s tough to get any more obvious than that.

Neo: If I had to guess, I’d say you’re a program from the machine world. So is he.

The Oracle: So far, so good.

Neo: But if that’s true, that can mean you are a part of this system, another kind of control.

The Oracle: Keep going.

Neo: I suppose the most obvious question is, how can I trust you?

The Oracle: Bingo! It is a pickle, no doubt about it. The bad news is there’s no way if you can really know whether I’m here to help you or not. So it’s really up to you. You just have to make up your own damn mind to either accept what I’m going to tell you, or reject it. Candy?

After my second vodka tonic I found myself watching The Matrix while blogging… and in some intoxicated way it suddenly came across as pertinent. Something about the ambiguation of categories, identities and individualities in that movie – what’s real, what’s simulation, who is whose creation, multiple perspectives, multiplicity of Agent Smith, choice as oppressive illusion, artificial intelligence… How can we trust anyone, anything when everything is coded, mediated, relative, partial, dynamic… Maybe my art is about Matrix – or what Matrix is dealing with…