ESSAYS

I was grateful to receive two books from my son last year titled “Sapiens” by Noah Harari and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. As I read his thoughts about Homo Sapien’s ability to entertain a myth and that those myths are what bind us together as a society, I was also taken by his thoughts on the increase in artificial intelligence and the movement he believes we are going towards human irrelevance.

As an artist, its something to ponder as it seems that computerization continues to make its way into all aspects of society including the methods and materials in art. Galleries seem to jump the bandwagon with many art forms being “laser cut” by machines and video art and laser lights.

I really don’t even object to any of these materials as art but wonder sometimes if in our search to create a “new” idea, compete in the market, we are confused between “new” and good. ( as discussed in ” Nothing if not critical” by Robert Hughes) In the search for the latest and greatest are we forsaking something valuable to us as a culture, our humanness in expression. With the video culture increasing every day is our aesthetic changing to a more sleek representational and digital image. Is the work of the hand moving in the same direction as the sapiens in the book?

New territory has always been an American sentiment but as artists and art appreciators can we define the boundary when artist ends and machine begins. Can we step back and recognize the difference where technology has changed aesthetics and where human expression can exist. Can we push back on the mental pollution and in our own humanness decide to draw the line.