Life Under Observation: Art, Surveillance, and Emerging Technologies

Artist talk exploring the impact of AI, algorithmic image-making, and digital surveillance on artistic practice. Life Under Observation: Art, Surveillance, and Emerging Technologies Panel Discussion: Hannah Baer, Roopa Vasudevan, Molly Soda Moderated by Angela Ferraiolo, Artist, Sarah Lawrence Prof, Systems Arist, Writer, Filmmaker How do contemporary technologies transform the way we see and are seen? In this discussion, three artists from World Builders explore the impact of artificial intelligence, algorithmic image-making, and digital surveillance on artistic practice. Addressing issues ranging from deepfake technologies to social media self-representation and corporate data collection, the conversation considers the increasingly mediated nature of human experience. Moderated by Angela Ferraiolo, artist, systems theorist, and Professor of Visual Arts at Sarah Lawrence College. About the artists: Hannah Baer is a writer and therapist based in New York. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Artforum, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She is the author of the memoir trans girl suicide museum. Baer has contributed essays and articles to several publications, including: Jewish Currents, The Drift, Artforum, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Guardian, and Parapraxis. Baer is also known for championing artists such as Pe Ferreira, Doron Langberg, Ser Serpas, Nash Glynn, Oscar yi Hou, Pippa Garner, Paul Yore, and Sam Penn. She has read and lectured widely, including at London Trans+ Pride, The Poetry Project, Pioneer Works, Artists Space, Camp Trans in the UK, and Lunchmeat Festival in Prague. Baer's forthcoming book, The Life of the Party, is set to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2027. The book is described as part instruction manual on hosting gatherings and part cultural memoir, exploring how parties can reshape our relationships and social structures. Roopa Vasudevan is a media artist and researcher based between New York City and Western Massachusetts. Through her technologically-driven practice, she investigates the gaps between the stories we tell ourselves about digital systems and their realities. She has exhibited her work internationally, and has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to artist-led initiatives, working with spaces across the United States including in New York (New York), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Cleveland (Ohio), and Portland (Maine). Her work has additionally been exhibited or supported by MASS MoCA (North Adams, Massachusetts), the European Cultural Centre Italy (Venice), NEW INC (New Museum, New York), the Processing Foundation, Eyebeam, and the Emerson Collective Culture Council, among others. Vasudevan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MPS from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University. Molly Soda lives and works in New York. She received her B.F.A in Photography and Imaging from Tish School of Art, New York University in 2011. Previous solo shows include You Got This at Jack Barrett (2020); Me and My Gurls, Annka Kultys Gallery, London (2018); I’m just happy to be here, 315 Gallery, Brooklyn (2017); Comfort Zone, Annka Kultys Gallery, London (2016) and From My Bedroom to Yours, Annka Kultys Gallery, London (2016). She has participated in several group shows internationally. Recent group shows include Alone Together, Artefact, STUK Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (2020); NADA Miami, Daata Editions, Miami, FL (2019); Eye to I, National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C (2018); Virtual Normality: Women Net Artists 2.0, Museum der bildenden Künste, Liepzig, Germany, (2018); digital_self, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland, (2017); Your Digital Self Hates You, Stadt Bern, Bern, Switzerland (2016); Doubly So, Center Galleries, Detroit, (2016). About the Moderator: Angela Ferraiolo is a systems artist working with open-endedness, self-organization, morphogenesis, and adaptive processes. She was recently in residence at the Intelligent Engineering Lab, Soka University (Hachioji Tokyo) and has served as a lecturer for School of X/xCoAx (Weimar). Professionally she has worked for RKO (New York), H20 Studios (Vancouver), Westwood Studios (Las Vegas), and Electronic Arts (Redwood City). Her artwork has been screened and installed internationally including Nabi Art Center (Seoul), SIGGRAPH (Los Angeles), ISEA (Vancouver, Hong Kong), EVA (London), xCoAx (Madrid, Milan), Art Machines 2 (Hong Kong), New York Film Festival (New York), Courtisane Film Festival (Ghent), Australian Experimental Film Festival (Melbourne), and the International Conference of Generative Art (Rome, Florence). New projects include experiments in adaptive systems and open-ended evolution. She is based in New York and is a co-chair in visual and studio arts at Sarah Lawrence College where she founded the computational arts program in new genres. Stay up-to-date on cultural art events in Westchester by signing up to receive our bi-weekly weekly digital newsletter Arts(e)News at artsw.org/subscribe. For more arts and culture in Westchester County, visit artsw.org.