Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman

Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman features 16 artists working with both analog and emergent technologies to visualize the interrelationship between humanity, other species, and the earth itself. Using mediums such as digital animation, augmented and virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, artists Ian Cheng, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Marguerite Humeau, Josefa Ntjam, Jacolby Satterwhite, Saya Woolfalk, and others challenge the view of human exceptionalism that prevents an ethics of care for the planet. Like the surrealists, these artists tap the transformative agency of the marvelous, the uncanny, and the unpredictable. In their fluid and floating creations, images morph, flicker, and dance, forming psychologically charged archetypes within a new collective unconscious.

While providing otherworldly moments of awe and enchantment, the exhibition is centered on real-world disciplines. The first section, taking a biological and ecological perspective, focuses on such subjects as extinction, evolution, and interspecies entanglement. The second, relating to psychology, offers visions of guiding avatars, "angels in the machine" who help distract, redirect, or open intellectual boundaries. The third relates to ontology—the philosophy of being. Bridging ancestral and present belief systems, particularly those outside modern Western traditions, artists in this section employ new technologies to reawaken humanity's sense of interconnectedness with the earth.

Image: Saya Woolfalk. Floating World of the Cloud Quilt, 2022. Brooklyn Academy of Music, Rudin Family Gallery at BAM Strong. Copyright Saya Woolfalk, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects. Photo: Etienne Frossard.