Join us for the performance lecture Expositio, Iudicium, Lacrimae, or, Does an AI God Have an Ass? by exhibiting artist Zach Blas exploring the idea of religious-un/conscious thriving in today’s tech industry. Charting his encounters with various artificial intelligence gods, Blas tells of a computational world of divine judgment and devout submission, where artificial intelligence exists alongside mystical glyphs, occult sigils, captured bodies, and corporate transcendence. Through a consideration of religious sermons, offerings of worship, and spiritual iconography, an AI religiosity is traced, in which flesh becomes biometric and emotional crying transmutes into a symbolic language of holy quantification.
The performance lecture will be followed by a conversation with the artist and Mark Andrejevic.
This program will be Auslan interpreted.
Biographies
Zach Blas is an artist, filmmaker and writer whose practice probes the philosophies, mythologies and imaginaries that permeate contemporary digital technologies and infrastructures, ranging from artificial intelligence, biometric recognition, predictive policing, airport security, the internet, through to biological warfare. His practice spans moving image, computation, theory, performance, and science fiction.
Prof Mark Andrejevic is a Chief Investigator at the Monash University node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making & Society (ADM+S) and Professor of Media Studies in the School of Media, Film, and Journalism at Monash University. His research covers the social, political, and cultural impact of digital media, with a focus on surveillance and popular culture.
He is the author of four monographs, including, most recently Automated Media, as well as more than 90 academic articles and book chapters. He is a member of the Council for Big Data, Ethics, and Society and heads up the Automated Society Working Group at Monash.
Read more about the exhibition here.
