Adaption and Adoption
The Evolution of Newness
Art is a byproduct of science and technology. When new tools are made available, they bring about new directions in art. And while science and technology seek to solve, and art seeks to express, each discipline requires curiosity, imagination, and invention. Cutting-edge art attracts adventurers who tend to be early adopters. Through their contact with the latest tools, these pioneers allow their sensibilities to adapt while they explore new ways to express what life means to them.
End (O) by Alba Corral
Alba Corral has coded a new lifeform in her video titled End(O). (O) wakes on the monitor, which serves as its world, and breathing its first breaths, it begins to explore the limits of its coded existence. Bouncing off the walls, turning colors, and spinning seem to be its purpose in life. It also appears to be watching us. And even seems to enjoy terrorizing viewers by jumping out like a bug. Is it trying to communicate? Is it happy, or does it feel trapped? In an effort to understand, we assign meaning and emotions to the alien's behavior.
As "it" settles down, we regain our awareness that End(O) is just code. It's not real, it’s a work of art. Turn off the video, and it's gone. Still, the work leads us to wonder what "real life" will become as technology evolves?
Leo Bleicher is another generative art pioneer. He refers to his creative process as evolutionary, and his "Impossible Sculptures" challenge our perception of physics. With their twisted limbs and synthetic appeal, they push the limits of familiar beauty and activate our desire to make sense of all things.
Bleicher admits that his traditional sensibilities have adapted to the unfamiliar possibilities of code, math, AI, and learning machines over time. Technology has added new terrain to his artistic landscape by altering how he thinks about reality.
Impossible Sculpture by Leo Bleicher
Adapting is an age-old survival strategy that can lead to adoption and then on to evolution. This dual approach has saved us from extinction more than once.
The human race is rapidly moving toward the era when we will intentional evolve, just like End (O), we will change our bodies to suit new environments and developing new ways of being along the way. Contemporary art may not always be comforting, but it can guide the approaching unfamiliar.
