Director’s Welcome

Even the most obstinate resistor of societal change realizes that humanity—if we can still refer to ourselves with such an antiquated appellation—is standing on the precipice before a technological revolution no less monumental than the invention of the wheel and the printing press. Artificial Intelligence, we are told, will dramatically transform our working and personal lives in myriad ways we cannot yet begin to fathom. These advancements, we are often assured, will improve human existence and will not, as many but not all AI proponents argue, be the cause of its demise. A sense of collective trepidation is understandable and certainly warranted, given the potential scenarios where AI decides that the most sensible thing to do is eliminate the least sensible factors, which for better or worse often happens to be the human beings who, at least for now, still run the show. To assume we still do, however, is perhaps naïve and wishful thinking.

Whether we can harness and use these new technologies in a just and moral manner remains to be seen, although the creative souls in our midst are largely hopeful. As is the case with all new advancements and breakthroughs, computers and AI are being used in the service of creating art—art which employs its underlying rows of zeroes and ones both as a medium and as a means to comment on our present moment. To be sure, art is likely the safest use of this technology. A stylistically-diverse group who refer to their computer-based art as Techspressionism are the vanguard in this new digital world where preparing the world for the Singularity seems to be the prime directive. While this assumed eventuality is the backdrop before which the current exhibition is presented, the Techspressionists curated by Tommy Mintz offer a variety of aesthetic approaches and philosophical conclusions.

There is undoubtedly much in the exhibition to invite conversation, thought, and personal reflection. As you visit this exhibition, I invite you to consider the role these new technologies will play in our lives, and how societies and human behavior and thought have changed and will continue to change as we become more and more dependent upon the virtual world in our search for meaning. Humankind has eternally asked itself what it means to be human. Ours is the first era to ask: What will it mean to be human? Or, perhaps more frighteningly: What did it mean to be human?

Brian Edward Hack, Ph.D. Director, Kingsborough Art Museum

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