Wayfinding: Art
A conversation about what it feels like to make art at the present moment, featuring Benjamin Lappalainen and Michelle Jia and moderated by Brian Sholis.
Art has always been practiced in conversation with technology. The tools available to artists and the social and cultural context in which they are developed inevitably shapes and informs the art that is created.
In some ways, AI is just another technology for art. We're told that it is a force for democratization that allows anyone to create art with no skill or training required. In other ways, AI is a tool of extraction that fundamentally changes the economic environment for artists. Artists who have spent decades watching the devaluation of creative labour fear never being paid for their art again, or always being relegated to clean-up duty for the slop machine.
Is there a path between the hype and the fear?
Paradigms have shifted before now, and they will shift again. Join us to find our way in this landscape and discuss what it feels like to create art—and to engage in the art world—at this moment in time.
Benjamin Lappalainen is a new media artist, creative technologist, and educator based in Toronto. His interactive installations expose technology's mechanisms rather than hiding them—asking participants to negotiate with systems instead of passively consuming them. He teaches workshops, builds technical infrastructure for cultural projects, and makes art that’s playfully critical about our relationship with machines.
Michelle Jia is a design researcher, educator and artist living and working in Toronto, Canada. She has done research for government policy, Fortune 500 Companies and taught Needfinding and design research at Stanford and Berkeley; she's also had the peculiar honor of being nominated for a Grammy with a choir she was in once.
Brian Sholis is an independent editor, consultant, and writer in Toronto. He is currently the co-founder of Valise, a software startup that offers an inventory tool for artists; an editor and writer at Notion; and an independent editor who works with A24 Films, the Museum of Modern Art, Inventory Press, Diamond Schmitt Architects, Hariri Pontarini Architects, and other arts organizations and creative companies. Earlier in his career he was a nonprofit gallery director and a museum curator. He also spent a decade in arts publishing, including on the editorial staffs of Artforum and Aperture Foundation.
Wayfinding: conversations about navigating the tensions of tech in modern life.
We live in a moment where our trust in tech companies to protect our privacy and our freedom is at its lowest. Large swathes of the tech industry are shifting into an openly authoritarian politic.
At the same time, we live in a moment where our individual capacity to collaborate with technology has been amplified more than ever before.
How do we engage with this potential while living in accordance with the responsibility we have to the world and each other?
Wayfinding is a series of conversations about finding our way through this landscape together, both individually and collectively. This series will place signs and markers to help you orient yourself in the digital world with intentionality. Wayfinding is not about having the answers but about asking the right questions together.
Schedule
Feb 4: Wayfinding 1: Privacy
Feb 11: Wayfinding 2: Civics
Feb 25: Wayfinding 3: Teenhood
Mar 11: Wayfinding 4: Art
Mar 25: Wayfining 5: Work
Logistics
Doors: 6
Feature conversation: 7-7:45
Discussion with the audience: 7:45-8:15pm
Mingling: 8:15pm-9pm
Snacks and refreshments will be provided
🤝Join 1RG
1RG is a container for experiments re-imagining the relationship between technology and our communities. If you want to be a part of our community, consider becoming a 1RG member.
♿️ Accessibility
1RG does not have an accessible entrance, the front entrance requires 3 steps of about 8 inches each. The rear entrance is two steps. There is a bathroom on the ground floor.
This event will primarily be held on the second floor which is accessible via an L-shaped staircase with handrails on both sides.