OFLUXO

American Medium is pleased to present Touchstone, an exhibiNon of sculpture and painNng by Ivana Bašić, Caitlin Cherry, Zack Davis, Jo Nigoghossian, Andrew Ross, and Vincent Tiley on view from September 13th through October 13th. These arNsts are exploring the human condiNon; employing tradiNonal art-making pracNces, contemporary technology, and a sensiNvity to the anthropomorphic aestheNcs these tools have acquired. The artworks in Touchstone orbit around the concept of the noosphere “…[an] imagining, in one way or another, above the animal biosphere, a human sphere, a sphere of reflecNon, a conscious invenNon, of conscious souls,” – Teilhard de Chardin, “HominizaNon” (1923).

In the context of this exhibiNon de Chardin’s “soul” can be taken to mean self-awareness or senNence. The artworks, though inanimate, possess qualiNes familiar to animals, humans – and more recently – to neural networks, and arNficial intelligences. These objects were giaed self awareness by their makers and allowed to reflect themselves. They are present, purposeful, and knowledgeable, yet obviously inhuman. Although composed of familiar elements populaNng our everyday, these artworks seem to beckon to a world beyond our senses.

In the Turing test, a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior becomes indisNnguishable from that of a human. It is in our mind that an AI becomes human; it is in the viewer’s mind that these artworks become animate. From collecNons of steel, glass, resin, and pigment, a “soul” emerges. These artworks are reminders that there are touchstones used to interpret reality other than those we are most familiar with. In the words of the scholar Graham Harvey, “…the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human.”