The Adoration of Automation, or, the Automation of Adoration, 2014
By BeatBots (Marek Michalowski, Greg Katz, Thiago Hersan, Hideki Kozima, Justine Kasznica)
Wood, photopolymer resin, brass, gold leaf, acrylic, motors, electronics
76cm x 112cm x 10cm
By BeatBots (Marek Michalowski, Greg Katz, Thiago Hersan, Hideki Kozima, Justine Kasznica)
Wood, photopolymer resin, brass, gold leaf, acrylic, motors, electronics
76cm x 112cm x 10cm
The Adoration of Automation, or, The Automation of Adoration is a wood relief triptych for the Pictoplasma Portrait Gallery, an exhibit of contemporary character design at the Kaufhaus Jandorf in Berlin and the Museum for Contemporary Art MARCO in Monterrey, Mexico.
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Pictoplasma is staging a vast group exhibition that brings together new works by the 100+ international artists, designers, illustrators, and filmmakers who have most influenced the project over the years.
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Pictoplasma Portrait Gallery examines the genealogical dimensions of figurative aesthetics in the postdigital age. The installation is part of Pictoplasma’s ongoing investigation into the limits of face creation and animism. What are the minimum requirements needed for something to pass as a face and at the same time arouse maximum empathy in the viewer?
The unifying format of the portrait has been chosen for a reason: even its classical manifestation portraiture has always been less about recreating a person’s appearance than bringing out their true personality as they “look back” at the viewer from inside the image. At the same time the genre has undergone constant change, through first analogue and then digital photography. The exhibition presents paintings, busts, sculptures, animated video portraits by today’s most influential creators of character-driven visuals – also extending this list to accommodate the current obsession with self-portraits taken on a cellphone, gathered by Pictoplasma in an open call for #CharacterSelfies.
From September 2014 to January 2015 the Pictoplasma Portrait Gallery will be presented as part of an extensive Pictoplasma exhibition in the Museum for Contemporary Art MARCO in Monterrey, Mexico.