Curated by Danielle Paterson
On View: May 31 - June 29 | Opening: May 31, 7-10pm
People of the Labyrinth: Leisure Centre explores the artistic response to the ever-evolving relationship between humanity and technology. While AI sparks anxieties about originality and ownership in art, these artists utilize various technological tools (excluding AI generation) as collaborators in their creative process. Elective explorations in playful making allow artists to become synthetic pathfinders on a quest in search of bliss in the cybersource.
The exhibiting group of People Of The Labyrinth are here to visit from The Leisure Centre. Filled with extracurricular activities, lobbies of hobbies, and gadget driven elective explorations of online liminal spaces. Our world exists in a fascinatingly conflicted state. Some embrace technological innovation and weave their lives into the digital fabric, while others fear its influence. Some makers are delving into the potential singularity within the digital ether, while artists and designers on showcase explore the depths of the unstructured expressionism that blooms in the daydreamatorium that is the online.
The rise of AI compels us to confront fundamental questions about originality in a world where references are endlessly remixed. Does true novelty exist, or are we simply layering interpretations upon a foundation of shared experience? AI forces a reevaluation of ownership, the sacred, and the boundaries of the permissible. The rapid developments in AI creative tools, churning out limitless realities, compels institutions and communities to grapple with the evolving nature of creating and engaging with art in the midst of this sandstorm–one where artists and their supporters will decide how the elements settle.
Thinking further about social and industry expectations on originality, homage and authorship– it felt fitting to mention the title of this exhibition series, The People of the Labyrinth. I’ve always loved the word labyrinth and I am working with people…and also The People of the Labyrinths is this fashion brand I found years ago, based in the Netherlands. Leisure Centre is also a vintage store in the lower east side (48 Hester St.), an amazing name—so I borrowed it. References are hardwired within us, both consciously and unconsciously. Did I need to give them credit? Was that enough? I’m interested in the difference in social treatment between various kinds of assistance and inspiration in the process of art making. Ideas can be validated through confirmed reference by the artist or imposed context by critics, and now it’s up to the makers shaping the new digital frontier to set precedent on what can be borrowed, referenced, and copied. However, within a landscape where people will become untraceable and exist across identities, those precedents will be bylaws at large and enforceable only through decentralized communities.
We teeter in the flux of a new era, AI poised to reshape our world. While “we” “worry” - what are the artists doing? What are artists working with tech and new media thinking about this? In a generative future infused with video games, robotics, and human cybernetics, what are the limits of the software–and the ethics? The exhibiting artists share a unifying perspective on leveraging tech as a tool for creative creation and curation rather than as a replacement. Artworks in this exhibition are not made with AI. Some may have used ai assistance at some point in some capacity in the process. AI also didn’t write the above text, I did. Or did I write most of it? Does it matter? How much?
–Danielle