Before launching into the compilation of work from this year, I should say it was a year of juggling some very different kinds of thinking. I got asked to write a lot about “AI” (a term I find opaque and frequently explain why in articles below) and won a Google Artist and Machine Intelligence grant to work on the concept of agency. I was also the inaugural scholar for Nxt Museum in Amsterdam, where I worked with Jesse Damiani to curate the first Real Time exhibition. Many people claimed NFTs were dead but actually, some excellent work continued to be made with blockchain proving what I always believed, which is that smart artists will produce interesting work using whatever suits their project whether hyped or not. Thinking about art and technology doesn’t just mean looking at projects using emergent technologies, but also the systems that enable ways of seeing so I wrote about a range including medieval iconography, landscapes, and theater, while thinking through the writings ranging from Aristotle and Hannah Arendt to Jacques Ranciere, Susan Sontag, and Wittgenstein. The whirlwind raises a lot of dust but with a decent pair of cowboy boots (purchased while in Fort Worth in February), it remains fun.
The biggest discovery is my enthusiasm for collaborative writing with hopes for more in the coming year. For now, a look back:
Catalog Essays, Books Chapters and Journal Articles
“Afterword: On Loss and Liminality, Tragedy and Comedy” in Voidopolis by Kat Mustatea. Cambridge, MA and London, England: MIT Press. 121-129.
“A Flowering of Aesthetic Contemplation: Anna Ridler,” Anna Ridler: New Works. Nagel Draxler. Berlin, Germany. September 15-November 1.
“An Aesthetics of the Absurd for AI: Alex Reben,” Alexander Reben: Delusions of a Time Traveling Cactus. bitforms. September 6-October 28.
“Material Information: Insular and CU Soon,” Nye Thompson: Vertigo. East Quay Watchet with Lumen Art Projects. Watchet, England. May 20-September 3.
“Landscapes for Lilypads” Exhibition Essay for Lilypads: Mediating Exponential Technologies, May 15-October 15. Nxt Museum. Amsterdam.
“Interview with Paula Crown.” Paula Crown: Solo Together. Mar 3- May 21. Rockefeller Center.
Salto nel Vuoto: Arte al di la della materia. Entries for: Cory Arcangel; JODI; Duane Hanson; Agnes Martin; Trevor Paglen, Seth Price, Jeffrey Shaw, James Turrell. Edited by Lorenzo Giusti and Domenico Quaranta. Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Books.
“Installation Art in Virtual Reality: Resisting a Corporate Commons.” Digital Culture & Society, Special Issue: Coding Covid-19: The Rise of the App-Society, guest edited by Julia Ramírez-Blanco / Ramón Reichert / Francesco Spampinato. Vol 8, Issue 1. 117-140. abstract here
“Reclaiming Vision: Looking at Berger’s Ways of Seeing and NASA’s Blue Marble,” Visual Studies. Vol. 38, no.1 (2023). 133-142. abstract here
Magazine Articles, Interviews, Reviews
“Speculative Seeds for a Vanishing Point: An Early Modern Encounter for our Postmodern" Brooklyn Rail, December/January.
discusses two shows at Morgan Library in NYC
“Crisis, A Critical Imaginary” Brooklyn Rail, November.
considers some recent works adopting AI systems through the lens of the notion of crisis, specially the permanent crisis of the humanities
“In Conversation: Joel Meyerowitz with Charlotte Kent” Brooklyn Rail, November.
“We Have Tried to Warn You: From Climate to AI” Brooklyn Rail, October.
looks at climate posters exhibition at The Poster House to think through confusion around AI (public generators) with reference to Prometheus Unbound at Theater for a New Audience
Exhibition Review “Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies” Brooklyn Rail, September.
review of exhibition at Smithsonian American Art Museum
“Coin of the Realm,” Artifacts by Ana Maria Caballeros and Alex Estorick. Emprops. September 26.
“The Play’s the Thing,” Brooklyn Rail, September.
uses the notion of play and games to consider The Boys of Summer by Mitchell Chan and Leaps by Aaron Huey
co-written with Nancy Baker Cahill
"Art and the State of Water,” Brooklyn Rail, July/August.
responds to recent US Supreme Court rulings surrounding water by looking at the meaningful work with water done by contemporary artists
“A Word or Two on Art and Technology” Brooklyn Rail, May.
Introductory essay as Guest Editor of the May Critics Page on Art and Technology
Critics Page includes essays by Tina Rivers Ryan, PhD.; Magda Sawon; Bilyana Palankasova & Sarah Cook, PhD.; Clara Peh, PhD.; Doreen A. Rios; Kanon; Kay Watson; Magda Sawon; Margaret Wertheim, PhD.; Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, PhD.; Merel van Helsdingen; Ruth Catlow & Penny Rafferty; Yayoi Shionori, JD., Sarah Odenkirk JD., & Megan Noh, JD.
“A Language Cairn: Artists on their Practice” Brooklyn Rail, May.
Weaves the words that artists have used and heard about their practice with technology
Book Review: Dismantling the Patriarchy Bit by Bit: Art, Feminism, and Digital Culture by Judith K. Brodsky. Women’s Art Journal. Vol 44, no. 1, 52-54.
“Pixel Art and the Age of Technostalgia” Right Click Save, May 16.
Some Questions Surrounding Robots and Rivers,” Art Papers, Spring 2023. 56-59.
special issue on Artificial Intelligence
“Art’s Intelligence: AI and Human Systems” Brooklyn Rail, April.
“Past and Present for a Creative Future,” Brooklyn Rail, March.
looks at I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen at The Modern Museum of Fort Worth and Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age 1952-1982 at LACMA
“In Conversation: Christian Marclay with Charlotte Kent” Brooklyn Rail, February.
“The Crypto Bubble Burst. What Will Happen to the NFT Artworld?” Art Review, 20 January 2023.
“Art Needs Curators—and so do NFTs,” Fast Company, January 10, 2023.