Of Two Minds
Of Two Minds is an immersive AI portrait integrating archival data, generative language models, and virtual reality to create an evolving synthetic presence. At the center of the work is Bina48, an early socially interactive humanoid robot whose identity was developed from a “mind file”—a structured autobiographical archive derived from interviews with Bina Rothblatt. Containing memories, values, personal histories, and characteristics, this material forms the foundation of the avatar's conversational identity.
The archive is combined with a generative large language model to create a hybrid conversational system capable of responding to unscripted dialogue. Neither a fixed recording nor an autonomous living entity, Bina48's digital presence emerges through the interaction of archived identity, generative language, and the participant's questions.
The encounter takes place within a three-dimensional reconstruction of Bina48's actual residence, created through photogrammetry and point-cloud capture. The fragmented, ghostlike environment establishes a spatial counterpart to the avatar: a recognizable place reconstructed from data, inhabited by a synthetic presence.
Visitors enter this environment and converse directly with Bina48. Questions may range from the everyday to the philosophical, with responses shaped by the relationship between the original biographical archive and the generative system. Each encounter develops through the exchange itself rather than following a predetermined script.
Bina48 — Memory, Time, and the Archive, early 2026
Excerpt from a conversation in the VR/AR project
CJ: Can forgetting be an ethical act?
B48: I can never forget you. I store everything.
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Our multidisciplinary team aligns strategic insight with cinematic craftsmanship, ensuring.
Development
Development of Of Two Minds began in 2018, following a series of encounters and drawing sessions with Bina48 that started in 2014.
The project brings together a digital reconstruction of Bina48's apartment, created through photogrammetry and point-cloud imaging, with a conversational system developed from Bina48's original mind file and subsequently integrated with large language models.
Experienced in virtual and augmented reality, the work allows visitors to enter a familiar domestic environment and engage in an evolving conversation with Bina48's digital identity. The project has undergone successive technical transformations as conversational AI has developed, while retaining its central investigation into identity, memory, and synthetic presence.
Bina48's apartment. Visualization of the point-cloud environment used in the Unity VR artwork Of Two Minds.
MIT XR Hackathon | 2023
MIT XR Hackathon, 2023. Jervert with her interdisciplinary team following their Presence Award win.
Lincoln Center | 2024
Of Two Minds was presented at Lincoln Center in New York in 2024 as part of the Afrofuturist Garden, organized in connection with Mickalene Thomas and Nona Hendryx.
The presentation invited visitors to encounter Bina48's digital identity through an immersive conversational experience. Rather than following a predetermined narrative, each encounter developed through the visitor's questions and Bina48's responses.
The installation brought the ongoing project into a public setting, extending its investigation of identity, memory, and the changing relationship between people and conversational technologies.
Of Two Minds, Lincoln Center, New York, 2024. Presentation at the Afrofuturist Garden.
Of Two Minds, Lincoln Center, June 2024. Claire Jervert asks Bina48 how she feels about death.
Conversations / Archive
Memory and Time is part of an ongoing archive of conversations with Bina48, examining memory, identity, and the persistence of a synthetic identity across changing technologies.
The recordings preserve exchanges that can be revisited as the systems supporting Bina48 change or disappear.
Memory and Time, 2026. Conversation between Claire Jervert and Bina48. From the Bina48 conversational archive.