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PST ART + REDCAT

Opening on September 12th, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace is among more than 50 exhibitions and programs that will be presented as part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide. Returning with its latest edition, PST ART is a landmark regional event, this time exploring the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace at REDCAT addresses one of the most pressing issues of our time—the impact of artificial intelligence—by proposing alternative directions for its future and the redefinition of what it means to be human. In 1967, Caltech poet-in-residence Richard Brautigan imagined a coming future “where mammals and computers/ live together in mutually / programming harmony.” Borrowing its title from Brautigan’s poem, the exhibition and performance series looks to new models of AI proposed by BIPOC, feminist, non-western, and non-binary systems of thought. How can these conceptions of technology and intelligence reclaim AI’s potential? All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace expands public understanding of artificial intelligence by delving into the pressing questions it presents, from how technology alters the understanding of the human and nonhuman connection, to investigating its potential as a liberative tool. 

The exhibition, on view from September 12 to February 23, features the work of Nora Al-Badri, Minne AtairuStephanie DinkinsMashinka Firunts Hakopian with Dahlia Elsayed and Andrew Demirjian, Interspecifics, Kite, Charmaine Poh, Sarah Rosalena, and Kira Xonorika and a screening by Manthia Diawara.

The performance series includes Back to Back Theatre, Kite, Interspecifics and Annie Dorsen (Spring 2025).

Back to Back Theatre’s The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomespresented on September 26-28, crafted and performed by an ensemble of neurodivergent actors, considers human rights, sexual politics, and relationships with technology. Kite (Music, BFA ‘14) and Interspecifics bring together machine learning technologies, sound, the body, and Indigenous cosmologies in The body is the interface on November 2.  In Annie Dorsen’sPrometheus Firebringerpresented January 24-25, 2025, a predictive text model generates speculative versions of the Greek myth of Prometheus, who stole the gods’ fire to give to humans, engaging the audience in reflections on power, knowledge, and doubt.

Manthia Diawara’s AI: African Intelligence explores the contact zones between African rituals of possession among traditional fishing villages of the Atlantic coast of Senegal and the emergence of new technology frontiers known as Artificial Intelligence on September 16, 2024.

On December 7, REDCAT and CAP UCLA co-present Live Night: Cruising Bodies, Spirits and Machines, a celebratory evening at the 1920 iconic three-story and 1,600-seat United Theater on Broadway in Downtown LA. The evening will feature experimental performances by LA-based artist rafa esparza, Mexico City/Oaxaca-based collective MUXX, among other artists that engage with machines, AI, and avatars coded in trans-migrant and ancestral futures. Performances and DJ sets will take place throughout the theater, the three-story grand lobby, and stage.

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The exhibition is funded in part with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation.
 
Exhibition Curator: Daniela Lieja Quintanar
Performance Program Curators: Katy Dammers, Daniela Lieja Quintanar, and Edgar Miramontes
Assistant Curator: Talia Heiman
Technical Director: Adam Matthew
Exhibition Designer: Adalberto Charvel
Graphic Designer: Ella Gold
Publication: REDCAT/East of Borneo
Project Director: Joao Ribas
 
For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art
 
REDCAT PST Advisory Committee: Amanda Beech, artist and writer, Faculty CalArts School of Critical Studies, Grisha Coleman, composer, performer and choreographer, member, AI4Afrika, d. Sabela Grimes, choreographer, writer, composer and educator, Ajay Kapur, Associate Provost for Creative Technologies, CalArts, Eva Kozanecka, Program Co-Lead, Artists + Machine Intelligence, Google, Tom Leeser, Director, Program Art + Technology, CalArts, Tobias Rees, Director, Transformations of the Human Program, Berggruen Institute, Anuradha Vikram, writer, curator, and educator, Xiaoyu Weng, Curator, Guggenheim and Philip Ziegler, Head of Curatorial, ZKM | Center for Art and Media.