The following is my artist statement for my concentration pieces:
As living beings, we have lots of experiences that are unique to other things in the universe. Now, for the first time in billions of years, something will finally compete with us: technology. With AI on the rise, we often experience a conflict between determining if it is a friend or a foe. It helps us throughout our lives, but many fear the days of a robot uprising. In my works, I explore the relationship and juxtaposition between life and technology. We usually think about artificial intelligence being different than us, but what if they really are similar? What if they experience the same hopes, dreams, and pains that we do?
Humans are often known for their empathy, social attitude, and many other feelings. Connecting is a piece that shows how hardware can be connected via actual wires, but they are also talking to each other through a tin can telephone, showing they have a personal relationship. Another piece that shows relationships is Doggos, the two robot dogs are in the same galaxy plane together, the stars symbolizing their dreams and imagination, showing they’re being creative together. In addition to the theme of dreams, Idols shows three tv heads obtaining their goals in life, to become famous idols, much like humans do. CD however, shows a negative emotion; pain. The CD is being inserted into the stomach of the tv head figure, with glitches around the entrance. The text reading “insert disc” implies that the pain was mandatory for the machine, or it could be knowledge the being finds to be painful, due to the function of CDs as information storage. Not only do we deal with feelings, but identity as well. In Arm, the subject is looking at a part of their body along with the text “abort, retry, fail?” repeated throughout. This is an MS-DOS error message that prompts the user as to what to do, much like the thoughts someone would experience while questioning their sense of self. Identity is also a theme in Shrug, with the subject being surrounded by glitches, and their posture suggests that they are unsure of everything. Not only are humans beings of life, but plants are as well. Plant Simulator shows applications on a computer demonstrating a user growing vegetation on their desktop. Since the feeling and attachment may be just as much as growing a real life plant, could it almost exist as an actual one? Are simulations just as real as what we consider reality?
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Not mentioned in my statement, but I love nostalgia. I grew up with a Windows 98 computer on a CRT monitor in my room. I was never able to have pets of my own, so toy robots often took their place. I see technology as a huge friend of mine, and I somehow relate to it on a certain level. As an artist, I see these things having so much potential in what to create.