Always Already Alien

Curator: Duncan Bass (US)

The world has changed since 1969. In the fifty years since the inception of Art and Technology Studies, networked technologies have become ubiquitous—mediating nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Always Already Alien explores the societal impact of these systems by analyzing the way we relate to one another in physical and virtual spaces. Are we closer to our loved ones around the globe than the strangers we push past in the metro? Can we avoid this seemingly inevitable sense of alienation? The selected works attempt to blur the boundaries between real and virtual, speculating new forms of cohabitation that insist on the physical presence of the bodies navigating these spaces. Always Already Alien showcases work by recent graduates of the Art and Technology Studies department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), including Yuemin Huang, Amay Kataria, Rafael Rivas, Doug Rosman, and Leah Solomon.

The first of its type in the United States, SAIC’S Art and Technology Studies department was established in 1969 with the introduction of a single course operating at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Since its inception, the program has continually pioneered the use of emerging technologies in contemporary art, developing new models of artistic practice and integrating these models into the curriculum of one of the world’s most influential art and design schools.

EndIIEnd VR: Illumined and Illuminated

Leah Solomon (US)

EndIIEnd VR: Illumined and Illuminated re-imagines the poems of Carol Ciavonne, weaving the vantage points of an Azimuth, Quadrant, and Meridian to explore themes of exile, rebirth, and black sonic resistance.

EXULANSIS [the VR experience]

Rafa Rivas (US)

Enter the world of dreams through a portal in a future city from a different dimension. Welcome to EXULANSIS, an immersive and interactive experience.

LAN: Live Agent Nest

Amay Kataria (IN)

LAN (Live Agent Nest) is a colony of synthetic agents constantly in a state of action. The protocols driving them manifest in behaviors like attraction, repulsion, and forming connections. Their contact with other agents leads to emergent behaviors depending on the agent’s capabilities. After forming connections with other bodies, a network of dialog starts transpiring in these super agents.

self-contained III

Doug Rosman (US)

A neural network trained to see the world as variations of the artist’s body enacts a process of algorithmic interpretation that contends with a body as a subject of multiplicity. The neural network, with its photographic understanding of the artist, creates a pseudo-autonomous figure unconstrained by physics, biology and time, that is simultaneously one and many.

Space

Yuemin Huang (CN)

Inspired by the Shanghai Metro, audience movement inside this crowded space triggers a range of sonic responses. A series of large white balloons fill the installation, forcing the viewer to squeeze between them. Acting as unpredictable controllers, these abstract bodies respond to human visitors and to one another, creating a cacophony that increases as we try to escape it.

Project Credits:

• Martin Berger, Provost
• Arnold Kemp, Graduate Dean
• Gretchen Talbot, Dean of Administration, Budget and Planning
• MaryAnn Schaefer, Executive Director of Enrollment Marketing & Operations
• Nicole Hall, Director of Graduate Admissions
• Provost Council

Biography:

Duncan Bass (US) is a cultural critic, curator, and art historian. Current research explores the intersections of art and contemporary culture with an emphasis on the societal implications of emerging technologies and the politics of visuality. He has coordinated traditional and experimental curatorial projects for venues on a spectrum from real to virtual. Bass is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied Art History, Theory, & Criticism, and Arts Administration & Policy.