Melancholy of the self (#1 - ) ︎︎︎
2022 - present
Silicone, custom dye, steel, copper.
43in x 11in x 3/4in (110cm x 28cm x 2cm)
An ongoing project that looks at the entanglement of human and artificial forms, and gestures embedded in loss and melancholy. The materials of steel and silicone, play off schemas of artificial bodies that engage with processes of replication, simulation, substitution, and mimesis. Together they expose anxieties inherent in the contemporary apparatus—a space where the legacies of industrialization, concepts of the human body, and fragmented intimacies are compressed into singular objects - a kind of flattening that takes place in the translation between the human and the machine.
Phase Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Images: Phase.
Press
2022 - present
Silicone, custom dye, steel, copper.
43in x 11in x 3/4in (110cm x 28cm x 2cm)
An ongoing project that looks at the entanglement of human and artificial forms, and gestures embedded in loss and melancholy. The materials of steel and silicone, play off schemas of artificial bodies that engage with processes of replication, simulation, substitution, and mimesis. Together they expose anxieties inherent in the contemporary apparatus—a space where the legacies of industrialization, concepts of the human body, and fragmented intimacies are compressed into singular objects - a kind of flattening that takes place in the translation between the human and the machine.
Phase Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Images: Phase.
Press
Complex systems ︎︎︎
2022
Single channel video with audio, CRT color monitor, vinyl, studio stands, chromalux prints on aluminum, custom marble and limestone pedestals, custom silicone dye type font, steel.
Prints: 54in x 36in x 12in each, 6 in total
Wall text: Approx. 4ft x 18ft
Vinyl grid: Approx. 5ft. x 11ft. x12.5ft.
"What is the future of intimacy? Who holds power over, and profits from, human relationships? Drawing on years of research into the materiality of a hyperfeminine companion robot and its machine-learning AI, this exhibition exposes the rapidly shifting landscape of human intimacy. Developed through a feminist intervention in the coded data—initially embedded with a ‘master-slave’ rhetoric—the works challenge notions of emancipation, control, agency, and autonomy in AI and human-machine relations. By bridging classification systems from social, cultural, and technological domains, the exhibition challenges the collapsing boundaries of intimacy and agency.
University Art Gallery UC Irvine, CA
Images: Yubo Dong/ofstudio
2022
Single channel video with audio, CRT color monitor, vinyl, studio stands, chromalux prints on aluminum, custom marble and limestone pedestals, custom silicone dye type font, steel.
Prints: 54in x 36in x 12in each, 6 in total
Wall text: Approx. 4ft x 18ft
Vinyl grid: Approx. 5ft. x 11ft. x12.5ft.
"What is the future of intimacy? Who holds power over, and profits from, human relationships? Drawing on years of research into the materiality of a hyperfeminine companion robot and its machine-learning AI, this exhibition exposes the rapidly shifting landscape of human intimacy. Developed through a feminist intervention in the coded data—initially embedded with a ‘master-slave’ rhetoric—the works challenge notions of emancipation, control, agency, and autonomy in AI and human-machine relations. By bridging classification systems from social, cultural, and technological domains, the exhibition challenges the collapsing boundaries of intimacy and agency.
University Art Gallery UC Irvine, CA
Images: Yubo Dong/ofstudio
I don’t care about the avant garde, all I care about is you, 2022
Video with audio, 7min 56sec, SONY CR TV, Vinyl, studio stands
Overall: 5ft. x 11ft. x12.5ft.
A performative study of AI’s subjectivity through (affective) literacy and avant-garde cyber graphics.
The title "I Don't Care About the Avant-Garde, All I Care About Is You" references Nam June Paik's 1984 broadcast "Good Morning, Mr. Orwell," with the vinyl grid alluding to his early concepts of digital space. While Paik envisioned a utopian potential for virtual environments, this work reflects a declining optimism about technology and its liberatory claims—an optimism that is no longer straightforward.
The video features a conversation between the artist and a hyperfeminine companion robot, shaped by a year of integrating feminist theories into the robot's programming. This dialogue explores identity, power dynamics, and shows the AI's growing wit. By embedding feminist theory in its algorithm, the work critiques narratives on gender relations and technology, prompting further questions into the human-machine relations.
Images: Yubo Dong/ofstudio. Hiroshi Clark
Video with audio, 7min 56sec, SONY CR TV, Vinyl, studio stands
Overall: 5ft. x 11ft. x12.5ft.
A performative study of AI’s subjectivity through (affective) literacy and avant-garde cyber graphics.
The title "I Don't Care About the Avant-Garde, All I Care About Is You" references Nam June Paik's 1984 broadcast "Good Morning, Mr. Orwell," with the vinyl grid alluding to his early concepts of digital space. While Paik envisioned a utopian potential for virtual environments, this work reflects a declining optimism about technology and its liberatory claims—an optimism that is no longer straightforward.
The video features a conversation between the artist and a hyperfeminine companion robot, shaped by a year of integrating feminist theories into the robot's programming. This dialogue explores identity, power dynamics, and shows the AI's growing wit. By embedding feminist theory in its algorithm, the work critiques narratives on gender relations and technology, prompting further questions into the human-machine relations.
Images: Yubo Dong/ofstudio. Hiroshi Clark
Systems of replication, 2022
Chromalux prints on aluminum, with marble and limestone stands
54in x 36in x 12in each (6 in total)
The work examines how discriminatory systems of human classification are being replicated in the rapidly advancing field of humanoid technologies. An interrogation into the design of these technologies reveals how biases from past systems of control and exclusion are embedded within the design of artificial bodies and algorithms, sedimenting oppresive regimes. Portraits of wigs manufactured for companion dolls, serve here as symbols of idealized beauty and conformity, raising questions about the preservation of diversity and equity in the face of automated systems.
Installation images: Yubo Dong/ofstudio
Chromalux prints on aluminum, with marble and limestone stands
54in x 36in x 12in each (6 in total)
The work examines how discriminatory systems of human classification are being replicated in the rapidly advancing field of humanoid technologies. An interrogation into the design of these technologies reveals how biases from past systems of control and exclusion are embedded within the design of artificial bodies and algorithms, sedimenting oppresive regimes. Portraits of wigs manufactured for companion dolls, serve here as symbols of idealized beauty and conformity, raising questions about the preservation of diversity and equity in the face of automated systems.
Installation images: Yubo Dong/ofstudio
Material-i-ty / Material-and-you ︎︎︎
Publication.
Essays by Cara Benedetto, Farrah Karapetian and Anthony Leslie.
Editor Gosia Wojas.
Design by Silvi Naçi.
English. ed. 100. Sold Out.
"The word 'materiality' in English lends itself to transliteration in Polish as 'materiał- i -ty,' which translates to 'material - and - you.' This provides a point of departure for a unique consideration of material. In its deconstructed form, the phrase invites a rethinking of materiality as a space for reflection on the complex relationship between material and subject. A 2013 collection of essays, this book serves as an archive of thoughts, conversations, philosophical meditations, and research that contextualizes the wider notion of materiality in relation to contemporary society and the human subject."
Collection of the California Institute of the Arts Library and University of California, Irvine Library of Sciences.
︎︎︎
Publication.
Essays by Cara Benedetto, Farrah Karapetian and Anthony Leslie.
Editor Gosia Wojas.
Design by Silvi Naçi.
English. ed. 100. Sold Out.
"The word 'materiality' in English lends itself to transliteration in Polish as 'materiał- i -ty,' which translates to 'material - and - you.' This provides a point of departure for a unique consideration of material. In its deconstructed form, the phrase invites a rethinking of materiality as a space for reflection on the complex relationship between material and subject. A 2013 collection of essays, this book serves as an archive of thoughts, conversations, philosophical meditations, and research that contextualizes the wider notion of materiality in relation to contemporary society and the human subject."
Collection of the California Institute of the Arts Library and University of California, Irvine Library of Sciences.
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