Can I see like a planet? and other questions for chatbots
Can I See Like a Planet? is an installation-based exhibition that features multiple interdisciplinary works made in collaboration with Mark Baker, Kelli Shay Hix, and Clint Sleeper. Together, these works connect cyclical systems of the planet with algorithmic computations and other forms of non-human intelligence. Each piece expresses and simultaneously critiques our newly forming relationship with artificial intelligence by abstractly referencing machine learning in both formal and conceptual frameworks. Ideas embedded in these time-based works allow the viewer to reflect on extensions of technology and the ways machines can help us interpret natural phenomena, thereby shifting our human perception of time. The collection of works in this exhibition - paintings, sculptures, video, and sound - are mediated through elements of chance, randomness, and indeterminate marks that operate in collaboration with code-based systems and work together as a cohesive installation within the gallery.
ABOUT THE WORKS
The paintings included in the installation are created using algorithmic sets of directions and diagrams. Using an aqueous painting technique on raw stretched canvas, the surface of the painting starts with a wash of evenly spread watercolor that is then disrupted by drips of coffee applied to the surface with a brush and liquid dropper. This begins a series of alchemical reactions between the acids in the coffee and the pigments in the paint. After the first layer has dried it gets re-wet with a spray bottle and more color is applied along with dry organic pigments, like turmeric, saffron, tea, and ash from burnt incense. The last layer includes another wash of color and coffee mixed in equal parts, along with and a handful of sea salt that is tossed onto the surface of the wet painting and let to dry undisturbed for 24 hours. The coffee and salt react with the paint and randomly create marks on the canvas that form abstract lines and shapes.
Some hold LED light displays with text derived from a series of “collaborative” writing sessions with a language model-based chatbot. A large-scale video projection is created using MAX MSP, a software-based image generator. This program runs automatically, in real time, and continuously selects random .jpeg and .mov files from separate folders, mapping them onto a set of platonic solids that rotate, stretch, and fracture within the pictorial frame. A code-based kinetic sound sculpture fills the space with tones and digital compositions relating to planetary frequencies. These ever-changing images and sounds are computational abstractions of material bodies that exist in the natural or “ordinary” world and through a series of obfuscating algorithms are never completely rendered, or fully known, suggesting a shifted perception of human reality mediated through technology, in relation to time.
Exhibition Programming:
November 4, 2023 5-8pm
Opening reception
November 18, 2023 6-8pm
Experimental Music Event featuring Robocromp
November 25, 2023 6-8pm
Music and Poetry Event featuring Kelli Shay Hix and The Morally Good