Notes from the future (𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧)

Movement, media, morbidity.

When the world is hypersonic, a record of what is happening right now can be valuable even six months into the future.

These notes are a journal from those who fight for, embrace and experiment with future possibilities in art.

If you enjoy this format, also consider following ULTRA on Instagram: it’s my way of curating a space for the most interesting post-AI work and will always have the most frequent content. ULTRA.ART and these emails will remain a place for a deeper look and critical eye on work from beyond the edge.)

Here’s a wrap-up of things that have caught my eye recently:

Embodied

We could get a little swept away by the potential of post-photography. And we should.

But Luca Cacciapuoti demonstrates its power to get us close to our messy humanity.

Laura Sciart is experimenting with how neural networks can create huge new multidisciplinary effects through movement.

laura.sciart

A post shared by @laura.sciart

Ephemeral

Angie Goh’s performance piece Body Loss has been permanently acquired, the first of its kind in Australia. But how does one buy a piece of ephemeral art? The value of performance art has traditionally been suppressed by its limited secondary market; it’s hard to make a buck selling sweat, not paint… unlike a Basquiat, dance isn’t a great form of tax evasion.

Typically – outside the glorious major installations of Anne Imhof, Florentina Holzinger and the like – performance artists work on shoestring budgets, experienced next to pieces of traditional art valued at 10,000x their fee, and receiving their payment from the gallery long after the caterers.

Body Loss itself is a piece specifically designed to take place in an art space.

How we preserve and continue to experience live performance and ephemeral works, in an era when many visual forms are increasingly commoditised is a topic I keep coming back to. I am fascinated to see how Body Loss lives in perpetuity.

Transmedia

I am once again calling out the brilliance of STACK, a work that seems to bring together many of the things that propel ULTRA: visceral, bodily, transmedia synthetic art. Heart pounds in anticipation of this one.

Synthetic

World-building is a powerful way to grip a person, existentially. But worlds need not be physical; the internet has been our true third space for a long time. And when it comes to alternative worlds, right now I love to wander into the nightmarish dimension of open_ai_signal.

A horror void, Giger-esque in its dimensions, Giovanni is creating in Midjourney, synthesising what feel like subconscious folk myths and technological monstrosities.

I cannot look away.

On my mind

Paul Auster passed away this week; he was and is a major inspiration for me. When I scan my thoughts and writing, his influence always seems apparent: heightened reality, doubles, inversions, cosmic coincidence, texts-within-texts, creation as an act of self-creation, an ambivalence to the ecstasy and mundanity of artistic practice.

As a child, his friend was struck and killed by a lightning strike in front of him; the experience stuck, proof positive that rare coincidences are not only possible, but transformative. If you have an interest in the same things, you might enjoy his work; if you’re only here for the art, perhaps there’s a pathway through his collaboration with Sophie Calle.

I was tempted to write a longer piece on him, but for now, I encourage you to breathe deeply in the moment, and remember to never be too certain of what is real.

A quote that has stayed with me recently

‘If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel capable of working in.

Go a little out of your depth, and when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting.’

– David Bowie

With love –