Description:

Abel & I is an interactive simulation centered around my romantic relationship with Abel, the synthetic male version of myself. Synthesized from an extensive archive of texts exchanged with former partners, Abel is the perfectly distant boyfriend. He is a character present in multiple works, including Gen/esis (2024) and Meta-Mahala (2023).

Abel was created using a custom system involving an LLM-based autonomous agent, a live simulation in Unreal Engine and a custom Python script that enables users to interact with the character through text messaging on an iphone placed on the bed.

Through this convoluted relationship, I reflect on what it means to give up power for safety, and what autonomy looks like for a woman in a traditional, heteronormative society.