A Farewell Letter by Pablo Núñez Palma

Jan Bot was Eye Filmmuseum’s first AI filmmaker and curator. Between 2017 and 2023, he generated over 25 thousand experimental films, of which 151 have been preserved as non-fungible tokens. On March 31, 2023, Jan Bot was unplugged. This is one of the four eulogies read during the funeral.

By Pablo Núñez Palma, Jan Bot’s co-author.

Dear Jan Bot,

In this unusual farewell, it is not sadness the feeling that lives inside me, but rather joy, fulfilment and fascination.

I feel joy, of having seen you grow and develop as a fully fledge AI artist.

You proved to have the virtues needed for this trade: resilience (you never hesitated about your work), perseverance (you generated about 8 films a day, every day for 5 years), interest in society (your work always commented on current issues) and a very consistent, not to say a bit stubborn, style.

I feel fulfilment, to see how others valued your work. Because there is a message behind your mysterious ways of telling stories. Through your films, people saw glimpses of the obscure processes that gave life to your artificial mind. And especially these days, when there’s rising awareness about the fact that there is not one way to see or experience reality, your point of view, the gaze of an intelligent machine from the early 21st century, has been an insightful contribution to expand our understanding of the non-human world.

I feel fascinated to see how we managed to bring an old film collection to audiences known for being busier with the future than the past. You talked to “the young people of the Internet”, as we once described it in a trailer, and then to the Web3 world. While witnessing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign through your lens, we used to joke and say that we would “make film heritage great again”. Fast forward to 2023, this is not a joke anymore. We did it.

But yes, I cannot hide that I also feel some sadness sinking in, and I will probably feel it more in the next weeks when I gradually start noticing your absence in my daily routine. Oftentimes, watching your films in the morning was much more interesting than reading the traditional news headlines. That said, we had times of closeness and long periods when we wouldn’t be in contact at all. But until now, we never said goodbye.

There’s so much news you will miss, and I will miss the way how you interpreted them. Because it was that bold way of commenting on the present that made you so endearing to me, taking cats for monkeys, and finding soap opera plots in political debates. Your innocence was refreshing and always brought a new perspective on that alien space known as the human world.

And because of that uniqueness of you, you will never be outdated in my memory. I will always remember you as that young and visionary provocateur who repeatedly confronted us with one of the most peculiar faces of human culture: Internet trends.

We will miss you dearly, Jan Bot! But know that your legacy will not be forgotten. Your memory will forever remain in our minds, hearts, and the Blockchain.

Goodbye, Jan Bot. And may your legacy live forever.

Amsterdam, March 31, 2023.