Artificial Reality ー A lying real

7.22 sat 〜 8.6 sun, 2023

The art project collective WATOWA GALLERY puts a spotlight on the question of “human nature” in relation of digital technologies in the post-internet society today, and will open a special exhibition to visualize the various way of modern human being through art, “Artificial Reality—a lying real” at WATOWA GALLERY / THE BOX TOKYO from July 22th to August 6th, 2023.

Since the acquisition of wisdom, human has always evolved along the development of cultures and technologies. When we encounter technologies, the joy of experiencing new discoveries intersects with an anxiety towards the unknown. In the society today covered in modern digital technologies, leading IT firms represented by GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) construct a symbolism of a convenient and abundant world.

Moreover, behind all sorts of issues in this society, we can catch a glimpse of the signs of technologies. In particular, AI softwares such as the ChatGPT released recently have a tendency to replace us in various genres, and we are abruptly questioned on where we are heading as a human being. Will our faith and enthusiasm towards technology lead us to build a uthopia of true beauty?

This exhibition consisted of photographies, moving images, and installations by four artists inquire on the technology uthopia. yang02 reflects on the publicness and the political nature leading technologies can have, and has presented a work themed on the reexamination of the essence of “wisdom” formed on the western rationalism. Other artists have brought up the proposition of symbolism of human activities on post-internets, the issue of controlling phenomenon by surveillance cameras, and more

Through these works, we hope that we can offer an opportunity to consider our identity and the way of being as a “human” in this society accelerated by technologies, find an appropriate way to handle events beyond the existing cognitions, and give a hint to build a new relationship of humans and technologies for the people who will create our future

ARTIST

Miki Hirase　yang02　SHINKA　Lin Yuhan