The Digital Landscape from August 26 to October 5, 2024, at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Trinitee Tatum
For an instant, I stood in front of Chris Combs’ Pollination (2023). It simultaneously stole my face and voice, projecting a virtual me before the physical me. The real me. I should have felt violated, exposed, but I stayed. I let Pollination search and seize me. I spoke so it could hear me. I was compelled to let it document me. A moment of pirated digitalization transformed into a prolonged, authorized archival of the self for my own benefit. What led me, and many others, to indulge in and consent to Pollination’s surveillance? Are we hoping to see if technology perceives us the way we see ourselves? Or is it the hope that this piece documents our existence forever, so we may never be forgotten? Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the unearthing of the algorithmic and systematic indulgence of surveillance for the sake of vanity and ego.
Chris Combs, Pollination, 2023. Aluminum, DIN terminal blocks, wire, screens, computers, 5×4.5×4’. Screenshot via artist’s website.
Pollination is an interactive flower-shaped piece that responds to faces and speech. It uses a camera to recognize faces, transforming them into rotating flower-like shapes, while a microphone listens to speech and displays its transcription on multiple small screens. However, Pollination does not fulfill the desire to be forever etched into the ether as nothing is uploaded from the piece. It uses “whisper.cpp” to transcribe audio entirely within the device and the facial recognition is powered by OpenCV. The closed circuited experience of Pollination means the user’s interaction is disposable, ephemeral. It’s a denial of permanent documentation.
Search results of security camera selfies on Pinterest.
On both systemic and individualistic levels, surveillance is often driven by concerns of fear, vulnerability, and a struggle for control. Surveillance pacifies through the external imposition of order, creating an illusion of security and stability through acts of monitoring, predicting, and understanding. However, this sense of authority is often superficial, and surveillance’s inherently parasitic nature demands data for eternity. Only major organizations have been able to harness the beast by overtly passing the labor of watching on to the users. Big tech companies create opportunities for self-surveillance and external monitoring via social media, but rather than creating a sense of control, this often exacerbates feelings of inadequacy and insecurities. Intentionally or unintentionally, users equate their self-worth to their social media metrics and are driven to curate a perfect public image to feel both internal and external validation. The more susceptible users watch themselves and others via digital networks, the more the images and algorithms reinforce their insecurities, where they compare and conflate themselves with the idealized, curated lives on their feeds. This creates a feedback loop where insecurity fuels surveillance, and surveillance fuels further insecurity.
Screenshot of ChatGPT when prompted to consider its own participation in self surveillance.
Ultimately, (self)-surveillance driven by insecurity is an endless and futile pursuit of reassurance as it only temporarily assuages fears– big, existential fears of the unknown, the fear of losing control, the fear of mortality, the fear of fate. The fear that we are here, and then we are gone. This reassurance, however, is fleeting, a temporary respite. The more one surveils, the more one realizes that complete control or total knowledge is impossible. Look Pollination in the eye, speak to its mic, but seek personal satisfaction beyond the screens.
Chris Combs’ work is included in The Digital Landscape at The Stamp Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park, from August 26 to October 5, 2024.
LIMBSHIFT from April 20th to May 19th, 2023 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Ellen Zhang
The word “AI” or “artificial intelligence” seems to be the center of focus in our everyday lives. Turn on the TV, and you’ll hear about the next big company integrating ChatGPT capabilities into its products. Open up social media, and you’ll find thousands of content creators promoting ChatGPT alternatives. While many have quickly jumped onto the AI bandwagon, some have raised their concerns over the ethical implications of using AI. From replacing jobs to perpetuating bias to lacking accountability, the moral dilemma of AI is multi-faceted and boils down to the question of how AI integration impacts what it means to be human.
LIMBSHIFT features the work of University of Maryland second-year MFA students Dan Ortiz Leizman and Kenneth Hilker, both of whom delve into the body and its constraints in relation to the world. Leizman’s work utilizes a combination of AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E to convey a post-nuclear future where human asexual reproduction is a reality. Leizman uses DALL-E, an AI system that creates artistic images based on a description, to generate the images that can be seen in their DESIRE.propaganda prints.
Dan Ortiz Leizman, DESIRE.propaganda (2023), DALL-E, prints on paper.
Another way in which Leizman has used AI is in NUKESOUND, a film that resembles an evacuation notice and breaking news report. The background music crescendos and decrescendos, filling the listener with a sense of impending doom. This elicitation of strong emotions – fright, suspense, and nervousness – emulates the intended effects of historical propaganda. Complementing the music is a robotic voice that informs UMD students to evacuate in order to escape a nuclear disaster. Despite the fact that the script, and the voice itself, are AI-generated, the message induces fear. Leizman’s explorations of how AI integration affects humanity are intricately woven into each body of work. In observing NUKESOUND, the question of what makes us uniquely human becomes extremely blurred. Most will answer by pointing to a human’s ability to communicate and express emotions, but this argument is compromised by NUKESOUND’s ability to convey and evoke intense feelings. Looking at AI’s intellectual capabilities, NUKESOUND also proves that the people that are involved in the development of propaganda – spokespersons and script writers – are no longer needed. So, then, what becomes of humanity when our intellectual and emotional abilities can be replaced?
Dan Ortiz Leizman, NUKESOUND (2023), Film, 9:50.
Hilker’s works respond to this question by touching on the idea of human transformation in relation to space. He engages with woodwork by painting, utilizing steel and acrylic, and burning wood to transform it into complex bodies of work. In Emotion Without Language, each piece of wood is imperfectly shaped but collectively creates a sense of fluidity. Some wood pieces are more charred than others, some have slanted tops, and some are slightly chipped. By putting them together, however, Hilker creates a mesmerizing, semi-spiralized structure. Each piece of wood supports one another, creating the illusion of a structure that is growing upwards. His work leaves you with the hopeful feeling that there is still room for growth in the structure and, consequently, in humans. In a world where cognitive and affective capabilities can be replicated by AI, Hilker’s work engages with a uniquely human quality: the ability for individually imperfect humans to continuously and collectively transform into something beautiful. In contrast to AI’s coherency and absoluteness, human imperfections lead to diverse perspectives, creativity, and connection. For example, our flaws allow us to empathize, enabling us to emotionally connect and form deep relationships with others as well as ourselves. As a result, there is unlimited space for us to grow emotionally, creatively, and socially. AI certainly has the potential to develop, but it comes in the form of flawless data, models, and training procedures. Whereas AI requires a perfect foundation to expand on, humanity learns from and thrives on incongruencies.
Kenneth Hilker, Emotion Without Language (2023), Repurposed burnt wood, steel, acrylic.
I see Leizman’s and Hilker’s works within a question-reply relationship, where each artist provides their unique perspectives on what humanity means in light of momentous innovations. Their works are in conversation with each other, filling the gallery with insightful dialogue on what humanity is and how we can understand humanity’s progression amidst rapidly changing surroundings.
Dan Ortiz Leizman and Kenneth Hilker’s works are included in LIMBSHIFT at The Stamp Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park, from April 20th to May 19th, 2023. For more information on Dan Ortiz Leizman, visit https://www.danortizleizman.com/. For more information on Kenneth Hilker, visit his Instagram @kenneth.hilker. For more information on LIMBSHIFT and related events, visit https://stamp.umd.edu/articles/stamp_gallery_presents_limbshift.
LIMBSHIFT from April 20th to May, 19th 2023 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by James Cho
Laying on glass panels suspended from the ceiling of the Gallery, and plastered to the walls of the latter half of the Gallery are Dan Ortiz Leizman’s CONCEPTION.specimens_spells and DESIRE.propaganda. Through both CONCEPTION’s use of miscellaneous materials and DESIRE’s advertisements and explanations, Ortiz Leizman explores how AI like ChatGPT might envision a post-nuclear future where radiation from the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant has mutated humanity in such a way that we have the ability to reproduce asexually in DC and Maryland. Specifically, through either an agamous reproductive method of parthenogenesis, or self-fertilisation. Their work also brings forth an interesting parallel between the controversy about the use of AI in creating art, and the controversy about the use of gene-editing technologies like CRISPR that in the future could be used to create “designer babies”. But what does that mean, and how is AI related to the future of human reproduction and our perception of self?
Dan Ortiz Leizman, DESIRE.propaganda, 2023. DALL-E, prints on paper.
Well, in the case that the radiation somehow changes human anatomy to the point that it allows for the changes in our reproductive organs seen in Ortiz Leizman’s incredible work, human women would become obligate parthenogens, which in simple terms means that women would only be able to reproduce by themselves through oogenesis (a form of meiosis, specific to the development of female’s egg cells, the ovum). This raises some issues in terms of genetic variation since it’s essentially cloning yourself, but the social implications would importantly provide lesbian couples with the ability to have children of their own besides adoption or the use of sperm banks. For men post-radiation, this could mean developing hermaphroditic traits or the ability to reproduce through facultative parthenogenesis. This second method of asexual reproduction through parthenogenesis is one in which the individual can reproduce both asexually and sexually, making men gender fluid. With this hermaphroditism, there would be a stronger genetic variation to guard against diseases wiping out entire populations of “cloned” humans that came from obligate parthenogenesis (whether male or female). At the same time, it would shatter traditional perceptions of gender identity by way of forcing us to experience the world through both sexes. Gender norms and identities that are currently only shared within the LGBTQIA+ community would be expanded to a much wider part of society in Maryland, allowing for widespread acceptance and possible push for legislative or institutional assistance for health within the state. Issues such as the gender pay gap, traditional gender roles surrounding the nuclear family (jobs, at home, in public, etc.), Men who have sex with men (MSM) blood donation discrimination, trans representation as not just “transparent” but as trans parents as depicted in CONCEPTION, and so on would finally be put at the forefront of problems discussed statewide, and with enough of a push, nationwide.
Dan Ortiz Leizman, CONCEPTION.specimens_spells, 2023. Powdered milk, honey, cellophane, vellum silk, soap, paper, DALL-E, durer.ai, plexiglass. Here you can observe one of the paper sheets that repeats the word “TRANSPARENT” or “TRANS PARENT” depending on how you read the text.
Dan Ortiz Leizman, CONCEPTION.specimens_spells, 2023. Powdered milk, honey, cellophane, vellum silk, soap, paper, DALL-E, durer.ai, plexiglass. On the this sheet of plexiglass next to the “TRANSPARENT” sheet is the AI generated art of different embryos and the green whisps on top of them on the plexiglass representing sperm.
Dan Ortiz Leizman, CONCEPTION.specimens_spells, 2023. Powdered milk, honey, cellophane, vellum silk, soap, paper, DALL-E, durer.ai, plexiglass. This last photo shows the powdered milk-honey-soap representation of what an early embryo might look like under a coverslip in a laboratory!
However, there are still some downsides from the use of obligate parthenogenesis set up in CONCEPTION and DESIRE in regards to cloning. As seen in the 60s with the “Big Mike” or Gros Michel strand of bananas, cloning by itself (which is what obligate parthenogenesis boils down to) shows how it’s biggest advantage – that of mass reproduction of individuals along the same genetic line – is also it’s biggest downfall when getting sick. In the case of these bananas in the 60s, the tropical fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (TR4) caused a widespread wilting of bananas by spreading a strain of Panama disease that nearly wiped out the entire population of this kind of banana. Replacing that kind of banana today is the Cavendish, which itself is beginning to suffer from the same issues due to it’s own lack of genetic variation. On top of that, issues with pure oogenesis instead of hermaphroditism pose a problem, since sperm cells are the ones that contain the genetic code for the formation of the placenta (and umbilical cord) which embryonic development needs to function. This is why (at least in the first few decades of Ortiz Leizman’s futuristic scenario), sperm would still be incredibly important to the development of the embryos seen in CONCEPTION, represented below as the green strands in CONCEPTION and the honey-milk spatters under the plexiglass. Knowing this, in the case that this scenario for humans that ChatGPT conceived occurs, would women and men face the same possible fate if faced with a disease (bacterial, fungal, or viral) that could kill us all like the bananas, despite hermaphroditism helping to reduce this risk? The answer to that question right now is yes, but as Ortiz Leizman’s work importantly discusses, AI and the advancement of technology may be what saves us if this futuristic scenario occurred.
Dan Ortiz Leizman, DESIRE.propaganda, 2023. DALL-E, prints on paper. On the left is a poster about the aftermath of the shift to asexual reproduction in humans and on the right is a poster about the monetisation of a baby formula for these designer babies.
As the other incredibly important factor that Ortiz Leizman discusses in the blurbs that one can read throughout the posters that make up DESIRE and in her use of AI like ChaptGPT, we might be able to find workarounds in the future for this issue. Current experimental gene editing technologies like CRISPR or at the very least use gene sequencing technologies like Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS), WGS (Whole Genome Studies), or Sanger sequencing. Because despite them being collectively being quite expensive when looking for genetic issues for one person’s entire genome (Sanger sequencing being incredibly cheap for small sequences but expensive when trying to sequence the 3 billion nucleotides in our DNA and GWAS and WGS both being around $400-600+ on top of being much less accurate than Sanger sequencing), in the future as technology improves, the accuracy and cost of these technologies will become much more affordable. With CRISPR, we also still need humans to work alongside AI, but given how we know that CRISPR can artificially create humans due to the highly ethically controversial case of the Chinese CRISPER twins from 2018 who had their genomes supposedly edited when artificially conceived, we know that in theory humans in a century or so may be able to edit the entire genome of babies/their children to better survive. Resistance to genetic diseases, height, hair colour, and other physically-related traits (depending on the person’s inherited genes) could be fitted to whatever the parents want. Most importantly, we would (possibly) be able to circumnavigate the need for sperm by extracting and copying different samples of the genetic code needed for placental development. With this kind of technology, a world where humans become hermaphrodites or capable of asexual reproduction would be much safer (as it could incorporate the DNA of both parents, avoiding the banana cloning issue), though the concept of the “designer baby” today through AI or human experimentation is one of the biggest ethical dilemmas that we face. Similar to the way that Ortiz Leizman describes CONCEPTION’s use of plexiglass suspended over the viewer as a parallel to being under a microscope, the thought of designing or editing human babies in a lab is incredibly dangerous as many equate it to playing god. This is on top of possibly creating new social inequalities between those who can afford the designing process and those who cannot, which can be reflected in Ortiz Leizman’s baby formula poster, where this development is monetised.
When talking about a possible scenario in the future decades like in Ortiz Leizman’s works where these techniques and CRISPR which seem grim from DESIRE’s ominous propaganda, there truly is hope behind it. In a similar way to how researchers like Henry Jenkins see newer generations of people use media and the internet to create hypothetical scenarios or entire worlds to make functioning societies and work backwards to make them a reality, Ortiz Leizman has used AI to create artwork that represents a magnificent starting point to work on into the future as we learn to become more accepting of each other, using science to support such endeavours.
Dan Ortiz Leizman’s work is included in LIMBSHIFT at The Stamp Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park, from April 20th to May, 19th 2023. For more information on Ortiz Leizman, visit https://www.danortizleizman.com/. For more information on LIMBSHIFT and related events, visit https://stamp.umd.edu/centers/stamp_gallery.
A Contemporary Art Dedicated Space at the University of Maryland
