I was invited by ArtX Gallery to participate in the gallery’s /imagine...Digital Soul exhibition at the 2024 GenAI Summit in San Francisco in May. The exhibition included an international roster of artists that “delved into the intricate relationship between art, humanity, and technology, reflecting on the profound impact of technological advancements on society, social contradictions, and environmental changes."

Curator MetaCher (@metacher.art) selected a diverse array of digital artworks that challenge traditional boundaries and invite introspection. The exhibition showcased the innovative works of 19 artists from around the globe, including the United States, United Kingdom, China, Korea, and Portland, spanning Video Art, AI Art, Digital Art, Film Art, AI Games, Audio Art, and more. Featured artworks by: Ariel Rosso, Benjamin Murphy, Chang Gi Lee, Holli Xue, James Johnson-Perkins, Jiangyao Shen, Jingyi Chen, John Wong, Kosmas Giannoutakis, Lois He, Mary L. Peng, MetaCher, Nia Engert, Peter Trapasso, Iván Bernal, Samantha Olschan, Sam Sanghoon Lee, Sarah Sweeney, Shenghan Gao.

Three of my works were presented:

Neural Scream Position 1
Neural Scream Position 2
Self Portrait with Deconvolutional Neural Network

I am currently working on a body of work titled Constructed Emotion which explores our evolving understanding of how emotions are made. I was initially inspired by the work of neuroscientist, psychologist, and author Lisa Feldman Barrett. The artworks included at /imagine...Digital Soul go beyond our evolving understanding of the human mind and link it to our relationship with Artificial Intelligence. Each of these images was created by taking a photographic self portrait in full profile. Using Adobe Illustrator, I traced these portraits using nodes, transposing the portrait profiles into input cells that link to a Deconvolutional Neural Network, which is a type of network that emulates a biological brain’s frontal lobe.

Each artwork uses a calm portrait profile and one depicting a scream. The two represent the dichotomy that exists within the human/AI relationship. The scream communicates the anxieties derived from our AI fears and ethical concerns associated with the technology’s capabilities. The calm face illustrates the symbiotic potential of a deeply integrated relationship with our new “digital companions”. Here, as in much of my current work, color systems are used to complement this narrative. I think of color in relation to the function of different neurotransmitters used by our nervous system to transmit and amplify information. My work Neural Scream and Self Portrait with Deconvolutional Neural Network bring these concepts together in a way that prompts reflection about the benefits and dangers of an AI future. This nascent relationship will inform a cultural ethos that will refashion our conception of the self and soul.