The exhibition “The Age of Artifice” will invite viewers to explore the contemporary human experience through video. It will be displayed at Bucknell University in the Department of Art & Art History’s 103 Gallery and in Winona State University’s Laird Norton Gallery.

For the last two hundred years, or at least since the advent of photography, technologies have continuously evolved, each seeking its place in the art canon. Photography questioned painting, phonographs questioned sheet music, TV recontextualized the theatre, and the Internet changed everything. Now, with the emergence of artificial intelligence, another profound change is underway. In less than two years, AI has been integrated into our search engines, operating systems, and numerous creative art forms. In this context, what is the role of humanity and culture? How is our society and planet evolving as human civilization accelerates to a fever pitch with artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and advanced robotics? This exhibition dives headlong into these questions, asking what we have become, what we might gain or lose as we continue to evolve, and how humanity will see itself in the years ahead. Through what Mark Amerika and Will Luers call “Mutant Cinema,” we will peer through that dim mirror to meet our contemporary cyborg gaze.

Curated by Patrick Lichty and Joe Meiser.