In the history of our rapidly spinning planet, art has served as a response and an antidote to chaos, conflict, uncertainty, and change. As we careen towards the virtual and attempt to leave the physical world behind, the tension between the two creates dazzling sparks. Armed with the latest technological tools, an innovative spirit, and hints of skepticism and hope, the artists in Out of Bounds: Pushing the Lines Between Technology and Art use shifting perceptions of reality as a platform for creative exploration. Weaving elements of past and present, virtual and real, and digital and analog into their work, they experiment with light, motion, and sound, reconstruct found artworks, reexamine our relationship to the natural world, pay homage to artists from the past, and rethink notions of the self.
Wielding artificial intelligence, augmented reality, interactive software, 3D printing, and cutting-edge electronics like a scalpel or brush, these forward-thinking artists provide insights into the future of civilization and speculate on the direction of art itself. The use of AI has generated fierce controversy. But as in the early 1800s, when photography was invented and artists despaired that painting was dead, art is constantly evolving and refuses to stand still. Despite ongoing concerns about machines replacing the human hand and mind, artists will always find ways to blend the old with the new, reach for the stars by embracing innovation and change, make full use of the materials at hand, and, as evidenced here, create timely, imaginative work that weighs and responds to the world’s dizzying fluctuations.
View Out of Bounds: Pushing the Lines Between Technology and Art via the button below, then scroll down for details about the artists and their work.
Identity in a Virtual World
Wenjun Chen constructs a virtual avatar from photos and extracted personal data in his web-based animation, “Wenjun II Sewing Machine.” Assembling altered and developed imagery in “!!! Techn010Ffspring !!! [V1_V9],” Sarah Buckius examines scientific and technological work performed by women through a caregiving lens. In her haunting, cyborg-like painting “Automaton,” Siobhán Wilder addresses the filtering of AI into everyday life. Using an AI platform and video apps to blend and abstract multiple images from her collection, Erika Fujyama presents a cumulative snapshot of her artistic makeup in “DNA-R.” In his mixed-media sculpture, “Confabulation or You Can't Hide Those Hippocampus Lies,” David Held runs recordings of people sharing memories through an AI filter to switch their voices and raise questions about individuality and subjective truth.
Rethinking Science and Nature
“Angels for AR” by Diana Rojas-Ponce features a 3D model of a winged, extraterrestrial-like craft hovering over an Oklahoma field. Obscuring the boundaries between physical and virtual, Diana blends technology, science, and myth to address environmental concerns. “Face of Universe” by Tatsuru Arai combines scientific research with AI, digital projections, and sound to survey the geopolitics, topography, and plant ecosystems in urban and rural areas. Inspired by science fiction, Alison Hiltner incorporates an EEG headset and fiber optic threads into “We Have Merely Been Detected” to interpret brain activity in a “laboratory of the mind.” In her installation, “Daily Chorus,” Grace Grothaus combines acrylic tubing with LEDs, audio, projections, and streamed weather data to probe connections between built and natural environments. Sebastian Bidegain’s 3D-printed “Globular Chair” reflects his fascination with molecular structures, functional objects, and natural forms.
Light, Movement, and Sound
Amay Kataria’s “Supersynthesis” mimics the movement of a wave. This luminous electronic sculpture can either be controlled by viewers with their mobile devices or used as a musical instrument. In “Sweetness of the New,” a lyrical homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat, Austin Wayne Spacy transforms his dance movements to a song by Basquiat’s band into an electrifying, AI-enhanced animation. Nevatruh’s pulsing electronic music video “Planet” merges experimental hip-hop with hypnotic visuals of colliding rhythmic wavelengths. In “Inner Beams,” Kacie Lees plays with the idea of light as language through a neon tube that releases a rainbow of colors when viewed through a spectroscope. Anke Loh’s interactive textile piece, “Touch (And Staying In Touch),” weaves soothing sounds into touch-sensitive fabric and conductive yarns to support people living with disabilities and illness, or who are socially isolated or marginalized.
Layers, Fragments, and Collisions
In “Photo, Video, NYC Subway,” Tam Benjamin uses AR, fragmentation, and audio to break down the narrative and capture the electricity of urban life. Veronica Martinez (Artlynette) transforms an animation still shot with an AI filter into a surreal 3D abstraction emphasizing edges, color, and form. In her animated digital collage, “Mama was a Fool,” Rebecca Rose takes viewers on a stereoscopic journey through her family’s history of lonely childbirth, pushing collage into a fluid, interactive medium. Michael Ricciardi’s wry black-and-white photograph “Icons on Motherboard” sets a pair of Medieval icons against an electronic interface to suggest a collision of aesthetic, cultural, and spiritual values. In the ruptured VR painting “Lost and Found,” Ozmandium reconfigures found imagery into a Dadaist tableau to challenge notions of originality, realism, and ownership.
All images published with permission of the artist(s); featured graphic for Out of Bounds: Elise Wilson.