Posted on Jun 9, 2008

As the constant influx of media, images and ideas continues to accelerate at dizzying speeds, artists are increasingly synthesizing the current information explosion and ever-advancing state of machine innovation within their work. Issue W presents a curated selection of artists who recontextualize and reconcile, adopt or address themes of technology in relation to the human condition. We survey a wide cross-section of practices that are relevant to this theme; ranging from Brody Condon's digital modifications and media interventions that transmute contemporary entertainment technology, or Ori Gersht's images that manipulate pyrotechnics and precise, scientific photographic techniques in order to evoke classic Northern Renaissance still life paintings. In contrast, an artist like Diana Cooper refracts technology by using organic materials such as felt, paint, ink and paper to convey a virally expanding data overload, balancing her manic human caprice with organized systems. Our featured cover artist, collaborative duo Simmons & Burke, reference the hellish horror vacui compositions of Hieronymus Bosch, culled from the vast expanse of internet imagery. As demonstrated throughout this issue, the ways in which artists are reconciling man and machine manifests itself in myriad visages, whether through an artist's means of production, aesthetic qualities, conceptual framework, or endless combinations thereof.
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