Three performances on the penultimate day of Spiritual Machines: Venus RX by Midheaven or Nah, The HTMLgardeness – Sowing HTML but Harvesting AI by Ursula Endlicher, and Powered by the Glitch by Adelle Lin Yingxi.

Venus Rx | Midheaven or Nah
2022-2024 (ongoing), Fabric, candles, idols, Goddess paraphernalia, ritual items, cardboard, tinsel, mylar and other household bric-a-brac
Solidarity requires a felt connection displaced by techno-capitalism. Venus Rx is a performance that happens within 1-on-1 encounters which invite participants to tap into their interior feminine energy represented by planet Venus. While I am using technology to quickly ‘read the stars’ from a hand-held device, the exchange requires an element of sharing, storytelling, vulnerability and empathy which challenges the absence of human feeling promoted by artificial intelligence and Big Tech.

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The HTMLgardeness — Sowing HTML but Harvesting AI | Ursula Endlicher
2024, WebAR, gif animation; acorn coffee, dried pears and cherries
The HTMLgardeness – Sowing HTML but Harvesting AI is a series of AR-Walks and experiences triggered by scanning the bark of trees, a natural QR-code. A critical yet playful series, it features the HTMLgardeness, a character played by the artist, reflecting on climate and systems, code and fragility, while offering AI-generated harvest.

In these walks guests are invited to venture out into different neighborhoods to discover, with smart phone and the artist’s WebAR “bARk” in hand, the HTMLgardeness’ trees and portals to reveal her tree-inspired AR dances, while sampling tree-specific drinks and snacks offered along the way.

For Spiritual Machines the HTMLgardeness’ surroundings will be extended to the Colonels Row neighborhood on Governors Island where she’ll inhabit five trees!

The augmented trees continue to be active and can be visited also after the event using the artist’s WebAR “bARk” at: https://html.bark.garden.

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Powered by the Glitch | Adelle Lin Yingxi
2024, screen, computer, webcam, custom 3D models, AR software
Powered by the Glitch explores the intersection of art, technology, and social activism through feminist cyborg theory and an interactive augmented reality (AR) installation. Audiences engage with their inner glitch, becoming feminist cyborgs through AR, challenging norms, and embracing identity fluidity.

The project interrogates how virtual personas influence real-life identities, proposing a synthesized identity merging both realms. Embracing the glitch as resistance and transformation, it disrupts binary logic, celebrating hybridity and the in-between, aiming to dismantle societal expectations of women’s perfection and constant performance for the world’s gaze.

Rooted in Legacy Russell’s concept of the glitch as “a form of refusal, a strategy of non-performance,” the project interrogates the possibilities within conformist systems. Participants will explore new forms of identity that emerge from the disruptions and imperfections inherent in both technology and nature. Additionally, the project will feature a cyborg feminist AR performance, offering a dynamic exploration of these themes.

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Spiritual Machines presents interdisciplinary works by leading contemporary artists encompassing new media, video, sculpture, installation, and performance. The exhibition closes September 22, 2024.

View full exhibition information.