Algorythms, 2017

'Algorythms' (intentionally spelled wrong) is an experimental animation created using motion capture technology and 3d software. The animation is situated in a surreal landscape, evoking an early 2000’s Mac aesthetic. Multiple copies of the same avatar surround the viewer and mindlessly play out our shared online experience. Drawing heavily on the composition and narrative of Hieronymus Bosch’s painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” 'Algorythms' explores the circus of humanity that is our online and digital lives: the sublime and the inferior, the monotony and the sensationalism, the artifice and the hyper-reality, the isolationism and the ever-expanding public sphere(s). 'Algorythms' highlights the perils of our digital existence, the snares that have us scrolling mindlessly for hours. The low-hanging fruits of our primitive biology represented visually are the mechanism through which we become trapped. Our reward-seeking brains keep us gazing at rectangular screens online, distracted, engaged or enraged, caught in temporary illusions.

Exhibition history: 'Algorythms,' the dual-channel animation, was installed as an immersive experience at the Art Gallery of Ontari'o's Walker Court for their 'Massive' event in April 2017. That same year, the animation was translated into a VR piece for Trinity Square Video's V/Art app platform. It screened throughout the summer of 2018 at the Arts Commons in Calgary, Alberta. In March 2019, 'Algorythms' was shown as an immersive animated installation at the Hybrid Art Fair during Artcore in Madrid.

Sophia Ruby Katz created ‘Algorythms’ original score.