WILD Profile: The Singular Billy Rennekamp

by: Dar Meshi

Name: Billy Rennekamp
What he does: Artist
Where he lives: Splitting time between Berlin and NYC

Photo by Max Pitegoff

What’s on his mind today:
Getting a bike basket for this tiny wiener dog I’m gonna hang out with all month named Pie.

What he’s currently working on:
I’m doing AI work on the game Othello. Trying to set up a system that will record all 10^28 (100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) possible moves. It took 18 years with 400 computers working around the clock to record all the moves in Checkers so I might be fucked.

What he thinks there is too much of, and too little of:
Too many options. Sometimes I feel like I have damage to my ventromedial prefrontal cortex — deer in the headlights. Too few nootropic drugs and supplemental brain implants. My body is ready for the Singularity.

His most striking moment:
I had a moment finishing this book by Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht called “In Praise of Athletic Beauty.” The goal of the book was to consider sports with the notion of Presence instead of weighing them down with cultural significance. At the very end he says that the only real thing he gained from a lifetime of loving sports was Gratitude. Moments of unexpected glory or achievement defy the notion of what is possible and, in a way, alter reality. We are awed by these moments and should be grateful because we are able “to let happen and to see happen, occasionally, what we have no right to expect.”

What cracks him up:
browncardigan.com

Artists that inspire him:
Erwin Wurm, Martin Creed, Tom Wesselmann, Heim Steinbach, JODI and DJ Sliink.

His favorite thing to do on a sunny Sunday afternoon:
♫ CANT STOP RAVING ♫

Billy’s WILD Wish:
The unlimited AAirpass and companion ticket from American Airlines. Unlimited first class tickets anywhere anytime plus a friend.

 

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