Title:

"Rehabbing the 'difficult' man"

Digital painting and video by Bo Lessing, 2272

Work ID: 98-61

No. of version: 09 

This work is for sale

Work ID: 98-61-v01

Despite the accurate psychological assessments of AI, decent parents and siblings and the combined efforts of them all to support a human from birth on to reach his/her full potential, despite all that good there are some exceptional humans that, even as adults, have to be called troublemakers. 

Mostly their deviation base on genetic causes. In the future not only science but also the intellectual elite will accept the uncomfortable truth that religions, philosophies and romantic sociological ideologies have denied for centuries: there are some genetic factors that cause antisocial behavior - though not all antisocial behavior has to have a genetic component. 

Such a "difficult" man is portrait here next to his government deployed female social worker / psychotherapist robot who he is obliged to live together with to keep his at bay and give him a chance to better. The second figure is a robot kid that the parents of the man have gifted him some weeks ago hoping to help stabilizing his state of mind and social attitude by triggering his empathy.

It's the man's play so simulate positive progress, and he believes he can fake it beyond the ability of the AI to unmask it.  This hubris will have to be healed, too.  

In our case the government robot is a probation officer which indicates that our human man has successfully done something that is almost impossible due to the "Total Awareness Network" (TA-Net) and its AI: he committed, or more likely almost committed,  a crime. However, maybe it's less dramatic, because probation officers will be deployed also in cases of humans who again and again have tried something stupid, regardless of their success, who have been warned and been clients of therapist but have resisted to change again and again.

Last measure: the inhouse  government social worker chaperone. 

We only can speculate about the problematic past, but the artist reveals that there is a rehabilitation of some sort going on, and obviously the two robots in the picture are important parts of it, since even though the "difficult" man owns the robot kid, his present situation grants society the right to recruit the kid to be part of the therapeutic intervention, at least to a certain level .

The child is holding a book, being a symbol of reason and enlightenment, and the kid doesn't seem to be too happy with the task or the man.

The fact that the robot child is a gift from the man's parents point in the direction that genetic disposition for antisocial behavior is more likely than unloving or abusive parents - who would have been identified by the AI years ago and treated anyway. Another notable aspect is the fact that this gentleman has two human parents who still are cooperating in helping him. This is a rare case in a world where most parents are not in a relationship with a human.

And lastly, the art historians might have guessed that Bo Lessing is a great admirer of 17th century master Antony van Dyck with whom he sympathizes because he is not appreciated to the level he deserves.

Explanation of the text elements:

1 "Rehabbing the 'difficult' man"

2 "Man"

3 "Robot. Man's probation officer"

4 "Robot. Present from men's parents"

Versions of the painting

Work ID: 98-61-v02

No text on this version of the painting, that is executed in a more old masterly way, though the faces of the robot child and the robot therapist are very abstracted, and we also have an irritatingly oversized hand.   

Work ID: 98-61-v03

It's typical for difficult men to initiate physical contact with women who are acting as therapists. The AI decides when that can be of benefit to the intended healing or not.  

Work ID: 98-61-v04

Work ID: 98-61-v05

In this version Lessing cut back the text to a minimum - and automatically the work looks much more like conventional fine art as one would expect it in a gallery or museum.

Work ID: 98-61-v06

The hands stands for "doing something", and in this case this something is bigger than life and probably confrontational although both the adult man and the adult probation officer robot keep their cool.  

Work ID: 98-57-v07

Work ID: 98-57-v08

Work ID: 98-57-v09