THE LAST POET
in collaboration with Galina Bleikh
AI-Assisted art with Artist processing
The video-installation THE LAST POET declares the end of human poetic totality. We regard Alexander Altshuler (1938–2014) as the last poet whose consciousness preserved a syncretic unity — the ability to merge scientific, mystical, rational, and profane visions of the world into one harmonious whole.
In his magistral sonnet resounds the key formula of this unity: “All is penetrable, my friend.” For Altshuler, the world is permeable, fluid, bound by invisible threads. Forest, sun, grass, human life, and works of art — all are part of the same stream of being. Even Bruegel, “captured in a frame,” remains within this living continuum. Permeability does not destroy forms but draws them into the “oscillating dance” of the universe.
Contemporary human beings have lost this sense of wholeness. Their consciousness is fragmented: some rely on scientific explanations, others on mystical-religious, others still on strictly materialist models. These frameworks do not harmonize; they often clash within a single mind. Poetry after Altshuler has inherited this fragmentation — it became a collection of inconsistent, dissonant models of perception.
Altshuler’s idea that “all is penetrable” evokes a Renaissance principle of unified vision — integrative, non-conflictual, and holistic. His magistral sonnet stands as the last testimony of human poetic coherence, where science, mysticism, and life could still sound in unison.
The video THE LAST POET continues this idea: from Altshuler’s magistral sonnet, artificial intelligence forges a crown of fourteen sonnets, each embodying one cosmological theory. Each part opens with a transformation: the theme of the sonnet becomes the image of an avatar. These are accompanied by AI-generated animated graphic symbols — emblematic signs, that condense and visualize the essence of each theory.
Together they form a new digital “canvas of totality,” where diverse world-models converge into a single meta-image. Thus, the machine becomes not a rival but a successor to the poet, restoring and extending the poetic wholeness that contemporary consciousness has lost.
The project is created by Galina Bleikh and Lilia Chak — interdisciplinary artists whose practice centers on building dialogues between humans and emerging technological realities, including artificial intelligence. Their turn to Altshuler and his poetic legacy is a natural continuation of their artistic search for new forms of harmony in an age of digital fragmentation.
The project also includes an interactive extension: an online quiz of 14 stages. At each stage, the viewer is asked to choose, from four names, the one associated with the corresponding cosmological theory. Access is provided via QR code. Participants who answer all questions correctly are rewarded with access to an illustrated collection of all 15 sonnets of the crown.
Concept, Art Direction & Editing:
Galina Bleikh, Lilia Chak
- AI used:
- Poetry Texts — Claude
- Poetry Reading and Lipsync Animation — HeyGen
- Music — Suno
- Images — Midjourney, Vivago
- Concept Writing — GPT-4, Claude, Gemini