This year, again, I am excited to share a two-panel stream at SLSA, continuing our group exploration of "Artificial Ignorance."
The 2023 "Artificial Ignorance" stream takes up the "Alien" in artificial ignorance by making the familiar strange and vice versa. Our first panel, "Nearest Neighbors,"" looks to what is home grown in AI, delving into human closenesses with AI technologies, from ground truth to AI applied in real world settings to AI's internal synthesis. This panel takes its name from the nearest neighbor algorithm which offers a solution to the traveling salesman problem and is applied in diverse ML classification problems including common image resizing. While "nearest neighbor" sorts for similarity on the basis of proximity, our second panel "strange points" looks at how humans/nonhuman everyday proximities in AI also provoke emphasis on internal differences. Named for the K strange points clustering algorithm which can be used to sort data based on finding the most distant points in a data set, this panel explores what is "xeno-"" about AI, from strangeness to weirdness to alienation, availing insights around AIs particular strangenesses, hauntings, and possible incommensurability with human sense.
Artificial Ignorance Stream
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Nearest Neighbor: 10:30am–12:00pm
Strange Points: 1:30-3:00pm
SLSA Conference, "Alien"
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ
More info: https://alien2023slsa.com/
I am humbled to offer remarks as the Parsons BFA Fine Arts Graduation Speaker. It's truly an honor to share this momentous occasion with an inspiring group of young artists and their families!
More info & livestream: https://event.newschool.edu/fa2023
I am delighted to announce that I will be in residence at University of California Irvine in the coming year, in conjunction with my upcoming solo exhibition at the Beall Center for Art + Technology in 2024.
The Beall Center has generously invited me to produce a new work through their Black Box Residency. This is a unique interdisciplinary opportunity to be "embedded" in a department at the University of California Irvine, and to take advantage of the incredible research resources and facilities at UCI. I will be in the Dance Department at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, where I am excited to collaborate with students and faculty to produce a new dance film project, We Grasp at Straws.
"We Grasp at Straws" is a single-channel video with sound that captures an absurd attempt at remote group puppetry. An ensemble of five performers will each embody a finger to form a hand that grasps at straws. As a group, they will collaboratively attempt to pick up an ungainly piece of material like a larger-than-life straw. Using motion capture, this body-scaled data will drive a digital model of a robotic hand, showing an exercise in dexterity that's also an exercise in futility. Dwelling on the humble first step needed to begin the process of basket-weaving—merely picking up a piece of straw—this video is part of a larger project looking at human-machine collaboration and dexterity through robotics and basketry.
I am looking forward to visiting with the Art Department at UC Irvine.
In February, I will share a lecture about my work with undergraduate art and technology students. In April, I will share a lecture about my work in the VALS lecture series, and meet with MFA students for studio visits."What's Automation between Friends?"
Undergraduate Class Lecture and Conversation with Simon Penny
February 9, 2023
2 PM
Anteater Learning Pavilion (ALP), Room 1300
"What's Automation between Friends?"
Artist Lecture by Katherine Behar
Presented by the Visting Artist Lecture Series (VALS)
April 11, 2023
6 PM
Contemporary Art Center Colloquium Room CAC 3201
UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts
Irvine, California
Undergraduate Lecture info: https://beallcenter.uci.edu/events/what%E2%80%99s-automation-between-friends-katherine-behar
VALS Lecture info: https://art.arts.uci.edu/events/vals-%E2%80%9Cwhat%E2%80%99s-automation-between-friends%E2%80%9D-lecture-katherine-behar
I'm humbled to share that I am one of the 2023 Creative Capital Awardees. My new project "Inside Outsourcing" is among 50 selected from nearly 3000 applications. I am immensely grateful to Creative Capital for this significant support and recognition of my work and I am looking forward to embarking on this new project.
"Inside Outsourcing" will explore dexterity in human-machine collaboration by looking to the WINDING + WEAVING, TWISTING + POKING, JABBING + STABBING, HOLDING + MOLDING, CARING + CARRYING intersections of robotics and basketry.
More info: https://creative-capital.org/2023/01/24/the-2023-creative-capital-awards/
I am excited to announce that I have been selected by Harvestworks for a 2023 New Works Residency to complete my interactive installation, Indispensable.
Indispensable is an interactive installation that explores the relationship between human beings and the neglected non-human efforts made by hands-free dispensers. The cupped hands gesture of supplication we show in order to activate the dispenser indicates the hidden vulnerability of human beings. This project integrates with my long-term study and writing around "Artificial Ignorance," and is inspired by quotidian human-machine interactions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
More info: https://www.harvestworks.org/2023-artist-residencies/
Please join me for a lecture at Shelter Art Space.
"What's Automation between Friends?"
Artist Lecture by Katherine Behar
19 January 2023
7 PM at Shelter ArtSpace
Shelter Art
52 Fouad
Al Attarin Sharq, Al Attarin
Alexandria Governorate 5372050, Egypt
Katherine Behar is an artist in residence at Out of the Circle. Presented in partnership with Out of the Circle, coordinated hosted by Chaymaa Ramzy
Entry is free.
More info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CnKCJyjtF6-/
Please join me for a lecture at Interference Light Art.
"What's Automation between Friends?"
Artist Lecture by Katherine Behar
8 January 2023
4 PM at Dar Interference
Dar Interference
Medina of Tunis
Tunis, Tunisia
Katherine Behar is an artist in residence at Out of the Circle. Presented in partnership with Out of the Circle, coordinated through Cross Common Curatorial Collective and hosted by Salma Kossemtini
Entry is free.
More info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CnJPqC8NtlA/
https://intunis.net/interference-residency-katherine-behar/
Please join me for a lecture at Medrar.
"Digitally Divided: On Data and Divisiveness"
Artist Lecture by Katherine Behar
5 January 2023
7 PM at Medrar
Medrar for Contemporary Art
10 Gamal Al Din Abou Al Mahasen
Qasr El Nil
Cairo Governorate 4272033, Egypt
Katherine Behar is an artist in residence at Out of the Circle. Presented in partnership with Out of the Circle.
Entry is free. First-come, first-served basis is applied due to the space limited capacity
More info: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm7ReGSrPYY/
I am delighted to visit Egypt and Tunisia in January 2023 where I will participate in a research residency at Out of the Circle at the invitation of founder and director, Elham Khattab.
My residency will include time in Cairo, Tunis, and Alexandria where I will present lectures on my work, meet with early-career artists, and visit with local arts organizations in these three cities.
This trip will also provide an opportunity to follow up on my previous work with Egypt-based artists and meet the participants in I worked with virtually through Zero1's Creative Impact Lab Cairo in the Recto & Verso exhibition.
Out of the Circle is an arts organization based in Cairo, Egypt, catering to the MENA region's digital and new media art scene. It offers a platform that facilitates and curates events, residencies, and exhibitions for artists in a two-way exchange between the Egyptian and international art scene.
More info: https://www.outofthecircle.org/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnAHd3brUXA/