people



Beginning each day, a line of small colorful figures parades across the top of a high, white plateau, only ultimately to fall to their deaths. As the day progresses, their bodies collect in a pile that grows into an always unique spire, reminiscent of a coral reef, a leaning tower, or a brightly colored erection.

PEOPLE premiered at Telematic Media Arts in San Francisco during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, as bodies indeed accumulated in piles - at times, overwhelming mortuary systems. In this context, the piece was disquieting. Yet, the crisis also gave urgency to the image. The pandemic tested our ability to work collectively to address large-scale problems; and, in large measure, we failed. Indeed, significant numbers of people fell prey to politicized paranoid delusions, compromising our capacity to work together productively, and we found ourselves confronted with the cracks in our system. Add to this, the growing awareness that - despite the extraordinary accomplishments of science and technology - many of our most pressing problems are the results of our own designs. Too often, indeed, it feels as though we are walking off a cliff.

As a generative artwork, what specifically drives the figures in PEOPLE off the cliff is the algorithm that produces the piece anew each day. In this regard, it reads like an allegory for the irrational, self defeating contradictions in social media, search engines, and the neo-liberal - even, libertarian - ideology of Silicon Valley. The development and dissemination of digital technologies has been a huge, informal experiment in social engineering with often disastrous results. The delusions that stymied our response to the pandemic were promoted on the Internet. The algorithms have divided us into camps and cultivated our antagonism towards one another. Public discourse has been impoverished by the undermining of editorial judgment. Professional expertise, in general, has been denigrated. Working conditions have been gutted, and everyday life has been almost exhaustively commodified. The algorithms are efficient, but somewhere along the line, we seem to have lost track of where it's all headed.

Along with this critical force, however, there is still something richly playful here. Its miniature figures are reminiscent of action figures or dolls; and its aesthetic is deeply indebted to early, 8-bit video games. PEOPLE entertains the eye, inviting a darkly comic, but nonetheless soothing, meditation on how each of the figures falls, bounces, and lands—like waves breaking against the shore—a little different each time.


- Text by Clark Buckner

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TECHNICAL INFO
- software (color, sound) for screen or projector
- dimensions variable
- approximately 6 hours


EXHIBITION HISTORY
-2025- MAD Arts. Dania Beach, FL
-2024- Various/Artists. New York, NY
-2023- Roulette. New York, NY
-2022- ONX. New York, NY
-2021- Telematic Media Arts. San Francisco, CA

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION CREDITS
- programming by Oren Shoham
- music and sound design by Stefan Alexandrej CvitanicAl

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