Funnel & Switch traverses a network of potential solutions to some of the most pressing socio political questions of our generation. Ownership of data and objects in both the digital and physical sphere are currently defaulted to corporations and are exploited to subvert the common good. Funnel & Switch tackles crucial questions which respond to society’s compounding technological developments and capitalist greed. How does a lack of government regulations on digital data destabilize individuals’ decision-making capacity over personal privacy? What solutions can we find to preserve vital resources and culturally significant items, when corporate capitalism is eclipsing human rights?
Funnel & Switch examines controversial topics surrounding security cam footage, body imaging, AI, heartbeat data, culturally significant objects, and the manipulation of natural resources. The artists tackle these ethical dilemmas by investigating alternative dynamics that can exist between those with power and the rest of humanity, innovating tactics to resist, respond, recount, restore, repatriate and recycle. Despite unveiling harsh realities, the exhibition intends to instigate mechanisms for positive change, and pepper hope throughout an increasingly bleak trajectory for our collective future.
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Benthos of the Synthetic Suns
Kelly Xi (US)
Kelly Xi’s neon sculptures mimic the saturation of screen-mediated diaspora, repurposed to elicit the fruiting of fungi. To beckon renewal from what is left to landfill, she links a language for leaving a rare earth lake hometown with a social geology that spans tectonic time, colonialism, and emerging technologies.
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Dysmorphic Reflections
Reid Arowood (US)
Dysmorphic Reflections is a composition of bodies born of a machine learning algorithm trained on the artist’s own flesh. By training and producing these unpredictable bodies, the artist reflects on feelings of control and agency over their own physicality.
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Eteron 15
Eul Lee (KR/MX/US)
The Lovers is the 15th series of Eteron, a non-existent word for an ontological integer between 1 and 2. In this work, two watering cans interdependently circulate water. Despite their individuality, they are intertwined. If one ceases to provide water, the other will soon follow.
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Happy Travels
Juan Eduardo Flores (US)
Happy Travels is part of a series of work in which zippers on found travel items are modified to be computer-controlled in order to autonomously reveal and conceal a partial view of a livestream video of the international border bridge area between the US and Mexico.
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Khazar Archeological Confabulations, 2023
Nimrod Astarhan (US/IL)
Khazar Archeological Confabulations employs machine learning to craft speculative archeological images tied to the artist’s heritage. Using a database of artifacts from a sought-after archeological excavation of the lost Khazar capital, the system generates a vocabulary of mean images of object drawings in real-time.
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Overload.Love
Yiyi Liu (CN)
Overload.Love is an interactive installation that explores how digital technology carries biosignals and emotional experiences. The program is fueled by the heartbeat data of the participants, resulting in the emergence of figures that collide with one another.
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ReThinking the Archive
Korina Victoria Hernandez (US)
ReThinking the Archive is a museological platform built to remedy cultural disconnection between Central Americans and their heritage along with the cultural displacement of displayed objects through the use of technology.
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The Camera-Shy Hoodie
Mac Pierce (US)
The Camera-Shy Hoodie is an open-source DIY adversarial garment designed to give the user the option to anonymize themselves within the recording of a night vision security camera.
About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is one of the most historically significant accredited independent schools of art and design in the US, located in one of the greatest American cities. Our accolades are many, including recognition by Columbia University’s National Arts Journalism survey as “the most influential art college in the United States” and our consistent ranking among the top graduate fine arts programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
Credits
Curator: Angelia Word Mahaney.
Angelia Word Mahaney is a curator, interdisciplinary artist, and DJ. She is a master’s student at School of the Art Institute of Chicago studying Arts Administration and Policy, and holds a BA in Dance with a specialization in composition and improvisation. She is the founder of FemmeDecks, an electronic music collective platforming BIPOC, femme and genderqueer artists.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is one of the most historically significant accredited independent schools of art and design in the US, located in one of the greatest American cities. Our accolades are many, including recognition by Columbia University’s National Arts Journalism survey as “the most influential art college in the United States” and our consistent ranking among the top graduate fine arts programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
