Alarming! Our Human Identity in the Digital Age
Mixed media collage by K. Vuletich
“In a time where the line between fact and fiction has been blurred by the constant inundation of ads, notifications, and news, our identity in relationship to technology is rapidly changing.”
Carbondale Arts presented "Alarming! Our Human Identity in the Digital Age" which opened on Friday, October 18, from 6-8pm at the R2 Gallery located inside The Launchpad, at 76 S 4th Street in Carbondale.
Our identity in relationship to technology is rapidly changing. This exhibition, by K. Vuletich, Perry Taga, and Sarah Espinoza, used interactive technologies and mixed media collage to emulate this changing relationship. The line between fact and fiction has been blurred by the constant inundation of ads, notifications, and news. Visitors were invited to become part of the installation as they touched, looked, and listened.
In Benjamin Walker’s Theory of Everything, he equates personalized ads to an alluring honeypot intended to entrap viewers. Walker later asks the question, what if, in addition to selling us products, in-app ads “are also trying to change who we think we are?” Could our interaction with technology be the next stage of human evolution or are we, as Kurt Vonnegut suggests, “serving as appendages, to machines”?
“Alarming!” was generously supported by Land+Shelter, a local architecture and planning company that seeks to harmonize the built environment with the natural environment and, in so doing, practice sustainable design. Land+Shelter provides an integration of architecture, sustainable design, owner’s representation, planning services, and community outreach – since 2005.
"Alarming!" was on display at the R2 Gallery through November 8, 2019.
K. Vuletich,
Visual Artist, Denver, CO
K. Vuletich is a Denver based visual artist and muralist. By incorporating trash and found objects in her art, she aims to re-purpose and create something beautiful and compelling from something that would otherwise be unwanted. In 2018, Vuletich received CCI’s Career Advancement Grant and was a recipient of DAV’s Urban Arts Fund. These grants gave Vuletich the opportunity to expand her collaboration with underserved youth and to continue experimenting with multimedia installations. For the past year, Vuletich has been working with Chicago based sound designer, Sarah Espinoza, and Colorado based engineer, Perry Taga, on a body of interactive work about our human identities in relationship to technology.
Sarah D. Espinoza,
Sound Design, Chicago, IL
Sarah D. Espinoza is an award-winning Chicago-based sound designer. In 2015 she won the Non-Equity Jeff award for sound design for The Arsonists (Strawdog) and in 2018 she won the ALTA Award for Outstanding Sound Design for The Displaced (Haven). Some of the productions she worked on include the nationally recognized interactive play, The Last Defender (The House). Recently, Espinoza received her MA in Sound Arts and Industries from Northwestern University.