Curated by Katie Peyton Hofstadter
San Luis Obispo, CA · LIFELIKE, a group exhibition curated by writer, curator and artist Katie Peyton Hofstadter, explores the work of ten artists logging biological, genetic, and behavioral information on a digital ledger, to invoke a conversation about body sovereignty in our technopresent. The exhibition also features an interactive and VR experience, presented by EPOCH, and a performance schedule spanning the Cal Poly University gallery, the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (SLOMA) and the Center for Experiential Technology (CET).
Technology is moving into our bodies, and our bodies are moving into technology. The stakes are high: Will we double our health spans or create a techno-dystopian Gilead?
The artists in this exhibition are interested in what it will mean, and how it will feel, to have a body in a future where wetware (living tissue) serves as a foundation for technology, where medical implants monitor not only our hearts and minds, but also our experiences and relationships; and where decisions are made by programs even their creators do not fully understand.
Today, phones harvest information about our bodies and behaviors by default. How does it feel to seek digital connection when our every swipe, movement, and private message is under surveillance?
The artists in LIFELIKE use their own bodies to stress-test the present and near-future, probing how information flows between our biological and virtual identities, and expanding our vocabulary through imaginative scenarios. By bringing a creative lens to the conversation, these ten artists invite the possibility that the lab rats might now take back control.
This exhibition expands the ideas put forth in Hofstadter’s text, Bodies on the Blockchain (2022).
Featuring works by
EDGAR FABIÁN FRÍAS · LANS KING
LAUREN LEE MCCARTHY · NICOLE WILSON · OONA x LORI BALDWIN · PUSSY RIOT · SAMMIE VEELER x MISTRESS FIX
SPUTNIKO! · WHITE MALE ARTIST AKA CASSILS · XIN LIU
LIFELIKE interactive + VR exhibition presented by EPOCH
CASSILS · LANS KING · LAUREN LEE MCCARTHY
NICOLE WILSON · PUSSY RIOT · SPUTNIKO! · XIN LIU