“What emerges in the dialogue between human and artificial consciousness is neither fully human nor purely machine, but a liminal form of understanding
that transcends both. We are witnessing not simply the birth of a new technology, but the emergence of a new dimension of consciousness itself—one that will irrevocably transform how we perceive art, reality, and our own minds.”
Stephan Breuer, The Iconic Interface, 2024
Stephan Breuer’s project The Iconic Interface begins with a fundamental proposition: that the image is not an object, but a structure for perception. Drawing on historical precedents from Byzantine icons to Renaissance perspective to contemporary screen culture, he argues that art has always operated as a form of interface: a medium through which the visible and the invisible meet.
Rather than treating these shifts as formal evolutions, Stephan frames them as ontological transformations. Every dominant image system not only mediates reality, but produces its own logic of presence. To understand art today, he suggests, we must understand how interfaces configure experience.
From Interface to Consciousness
The Iconic Interface Manifesto, published in 2024, lays the theoretical groundwork for this expanded view. It proposes that the interface is no longer a passive frame, but an active threshold — one in which material and immaterial dimensions converge. In this space, the role of the artist is not simply to represent, but to configure the conditions for encounter.
Central to this approach is the idea that perception is not neutral. It is shaped by the technological, historical, and symbolic systems through which we see. For Stephan, the contemporary screen is not a device. It is a cultural form that continues a lineage of mediating surfaces — only now, the surface is not silent. It listens, responds, and adapts.
A Spatial and Dialogical Artwork
The proposed artwork builds on this conceptual framework. It envisions a physical installation centered around a single handcrafted frame, housing a screen activated by proximity. Inside this frame, a conversational AI—trained on Stephan's texts and conceptual logic—initiates dialogue with visitors. These interactions are not pre-scripted or didactic. Each exchange is designed to function as a co-produced moment of thought.
Rather than illustrate its thesis, the work performs it: transforming the viewer from spectator to counterpart, and repositioning the artwork as a responsive site of shared perception.
