Paradox: The Body in the Age of AI

Carnegie Mellon University’s Miller Institute for Contemporary Art will present Paradox: The Body in the Age of AI, an exhibition curated by Miller ICA Director Elizabeth Chodos. The exhibition includes national and international artists who work across a wide range of media to explore issues connected to technology and the body. It draws out the tension and porous boundaries between the artificial and corporeal, the digital and physical, the technological and the tactile.

Paradox: The Body in the Age of AI includes existing and commissioned work by: Zach Blas, Brian Bress, Nick Cave, Kate Cooper, Stephanie Dinkins, Jes Fan, Claudia Hart, Eunsu Kang, Jillian Mayer, Sarah Oppenheimer and Siebren Versteeg.

This exhibition will be on display Friday, October 5, through Sunday, February 3, with an opening reception from 6–8pm on Thursday, October 4. There will be a salon discussion connected to the exhibition led by Dana Bishop-Root at the Miller ICA from 6–8pm on November 8. The Miller ICA, and all events associated with this exhibit, are free and open to the public.

“Paradox explores the primacy of the human body as it’s poised on the precipice of a potential fusion with artificial intelligence,” Chodos said. “Inspired by the Moravec Paradox, the show looks deeper into the unconscious role the body’s sensorimotor habitat has in shaping our awareness, imagination, and socio-political structures. Society tends to privilege reason and logic because it is conscious and quantifiable. But beneath this thin ‘veneer of human thought’ is a deeper, more complex knowledge system within the body that is currently responding to and being reshaped by new intelligent technologies.”

The exhibit brings focus to 11 national and international artists and dovetails with the coinciding Carnegie International, 57th Edition, 2018, bringing critical recognition and national attention to Pittsburgh.

Formerly the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, The Miller ICA relaunched this fall marking a new chapter for the free and open public space. Defined by robust programming like other institutes for contemporary art nationally and internationally, the Miller ICA’s transformation will be highlighted by a fresh vision and mission, a new website and identity. The changes will allow for new ways to connect online and in person and a suite of dynamic programs that amplify the intersection of current events, CMU’s groundbreaking research and contemporary art.

“I believe deeply that art has the power to transform and that contemporary art offers society a vehicle to participate directly in social change,” Chodos said. Since joining the university one year ago, she recognized Carnegie Mellon’s responsibility to the greater public. “The Miller ICA offers a place where the public encounters all of the fresh thinking and exciting research that defines CMU,” Chodos continued. “Art is about communicating and connecting people to one another through the exchange of ideas. We can create opportunities for dialogue and interaction and build a bridge between campus and the public through conversation about contemporary art.” Chodos said the Miller ICA will be a different kind of “idea machine” making the creative advancements and groundbreaking research at the University public.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication featuring curatorial text, photos and artist interviews.

To learn more, visit miller-ica.cmu.edu.