Summary:
The exhibition Souls and Machines explores the fact that, at the beginning of the 21st century, art and science move along parallel paths. And it does this through the work of a group of artists chosen for their ability to combine art, technology, mystery and beauty.
June 2008, Madrid. Museo Reina Sofía. The exhibition “Souls & Machines” attempts to explore the fact that, at the dawn of the 21st century, art and science are travelling parallel paths. And it achieves this through the work of a group of artists selected for their ability to combine art, technology, mystery, emotion and beauty.
All of them use digital technology as a tool in multiple ways: as a medium, as a developing element, as a research method or as springboard to new sensibilities. But their computers themselves do NOT create. And without the emotion and creativity of its authors, digital art is nothing. It would be like talking to a mirror.
In “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”, Wassily Kandinsky wrote, “Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions. In the same way that each period of culture produces an art of its own which can never be repeated.”
Why is it that we need new stimuli to move us in a new way? The present constantly demands new ways of feeling, of asserting that we are alive. Virtual reality, Internet, social networks, synthetic images, artificial life… these are just the tip of the iceberg. The world we know will transform even more rapidly in the coming years. Our museums will be different, our art will be different, our ideas, our lives and our relationships will be different.
It is the vital impulse that drives us to generate new forms and new experiences, to grasp reality in a broader, more real way. Because, at the end of the adventure, that is what we are: Souls yearning for new experiences and new emotions. Here and now.
And art? Where will art go from here? A great philosopher of our century, once said, “Time is the perfect usher: It eventually puts everyone in his place.”
Analysis:
I highly suggest looking into this article, as the summary cannot express the actual art pieces that are shown. There are multiple videos that show the wonders of these artworks. What I have gathered from this reading is the significance of the human soul and how that intertwines with machines. It also expresses the power of using this connection to create techno-utopias. “The “architectures of participation” and the socialization of the spaces and tools of the postdigital era are, in a way, the logical and inevitable conclusions to Souls and Machines, represented in the social networks generated by Antoni Abad in his work-in-progress Zexe.net and in the environmental health clinic of Natalie Jeremijenko, an open resource centre that aims to offer specific solutions at the local level to the multiple problems caused by the climate crisis. Now that we have transcended—perhaps definitively—the construction of techno-utopias, the practices, languages and strategies grouped together under the imprecise label of “new media” are today, above all, a space of possibility and a directory of proposals for action.” The full potential of the HYVE has yet to be unleashed and channeling inspiration from the artworks in this exhibition I hope to explore the possibilities of this technology.
Source:
Souls and machines exhibition – combining art & technology. artfutura. (2022, August 10). Retrieved September 21, 2022, from https://www.artfutura.org/v3/en/souls-machines-exhibition/
