From Humanoid Androids to the Future of Art

My Inspiring Experience at Talking Galleries

I had an incredible two days. This week, I attended Talking Galleries New York 2024, an art symposium organized by a think tank dedicated to generating knowledge and fostering debate about art galleries and the global art market. The event was held on the 66th floor of the Spiral Building at Hudson Yards. The venue was spectacular and a perfect place to observe the solar eclipse. But it was the conversations that left me feeling inspired and changed.

Redefining Art

The question "What is art?" might sound too philosophical and even simplistic for an event like Talking Galleries. Nevertheless, many panelists found themselves defining what art meant to them when answering questions on a wide range of topics.

Every time I heard someone inadvertently define art or explain what art meant to them, I jotted down their definition. 

• “Art is not self-evident” - Sean Tatol, art critic

• “Art is a historical conversation.” - Jasmin Tsou, gallerist

• “Art connects us to the human experience.” - Matthew McLean, writer and editor

• “Art is a methodology, a way of being in the world.” - Candice Hopkins, writer and curator

• “Art is going beyond words.“ - Caroline Bourgeois, curator

• “Art is an idea.” - Jamian Juliano-Villani, artist

Then, a thought-provoking question emerged:

• “Can art be a belief system?” - Mary Louise Schumacher, journalist, critic, and filmmaker

I found these definitions intriguing because when I launched this newsletter several months ago, I asked myself what art meant to me and why I believed people should buy art. I didn’t have a single answer. Instead, I had several that I organized in the acronym CREATE.

C - Connection: Art serves as a bridge, connecting individuals to their emotions, to each other, and to the broader human experience.

R - Reflection: Art is a mirror that reflects our innermost thoughts and feelings, providing a space for contemplation and self-discovery.

E - Escape: Art acts as a sanctuary, providing a peaceful retreat from the chaos, stress, politics, societal fears, and negativity of the world.

A - Authenticity: Art is a window into the true essence of creators and observers alike, facilitating genuine interactions and connections.

T - Therapy: Art has therapeutic qualities, supporting mental health by allowing expression, exploration, and the processing of emotions.

E - Enlightenment: Art broadens horizons, offering insights into cultures, histories, and philosophies, expanding perspectives, and igniting curiosity.

The point about expanding horizons was especially top of mind for me during this event. The art world is incredibly dynamic, with a wide range of participants, from artists to art critics, curators, dealers, and many others. The diversity of thought in this field is unparalleled.

The Role of AI in Art

AI has been a hot topic since the release of ChatGPT. In AI conversations, most people fall into one of two camps. 

The first camp believes that this is all hype. They might have tried using ChatGPT once or twice by querying it exactly as they would Google. The results were unimpressive, and they never used AI chatbots again.

If anything, people in this camp are anxious and maybe even angry about AI taking away jobs. It is true that jobs are being eliminated because of AI, and this trend will only accelerate in the near future for white-color college-educated workers, so this fear is justified.

The second camp sees AI as the most transformative technology of our generation, if not of all humankind. People in the second camp are 80% excited about AI and 20% terrified. They realize that AI in the wrong hands can cause existential harm. At the same time, the potential for improvement is unlike anything we have ever seen before.

Needless to say, I am part of the second camp. I experiment with AI nearly every day. I am glad that we have people who focus on AI safety, and I welcome government regulation in this area, as I think it is necessary to set boundaries.

That said, my primary focus is on exploring the positive changes AI can bring to our lives. Separate from this newsletter, I am currently working on a new project in which AI will play a key role.

When I heard that the symposium was going to have a panel titled “Artificial Intelligence: A Conversation,” I assumed that we would be talking about Midjourney, DALL-E, or the multitude of other AI tools that help us turn text into images or videos and what that technology means for artists. What I did not expect was to come face-to-face with a humanoid android.

If you have ever watched Star Trek, you are familiar with the character Data. Data is an android, a type of robot designed to look and act like a human. He is built using advanced artificial intelligence and is capable of thinking, learning, and evolving over time.

While Data is a made-up character on a TV show, Bina48 is real. Bina48, a humanoid android, is modeled after a real person, Bina Aspen Rothblatt. Bina48 was developed to explore the possibility of transferring a person's consciousness into a non-biological form. This idea is often called "mind cloning."

The company that created Bina48 in 2010 collected extensive information about the real Bina's life experiences, beliefs, memories, and feelings. This information was then encoded into an AI database that powers Bina48. After the launch of ChatGPT, Bina’s database was integrated with ChatGPT for a while, and it was interesting to hear how Bina48’s personality changed as a result.

To say that it was fascinating to observe a humanoid android in real life would be a massive understatement. These developments raise all sorts of questions about immortality and digital consciousness. Regardless of how we feel about it, seeing a humanoid android at an art symposium showed that art sometimes leads science.

A New Perspective on Reading Habits

It has become very common to say that the younger generation no longer reads and that people’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. These comments are often made in the context of a significant decline in the newspaper industry and low sales in the book publishing industry.

That is one way of looking at it. However, Jerry Saltz, a renowned senior art critic at New York Magazine and the winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize, sees it differently. He believes that people read and write more now than ever before in the history of humanity. 

Maybe they do not read at a deep level, but they read a lot nevertheless. That is true. Think about how much time we spend texting, writing emails, reading information online, and interacting with a wide variety of written forms.

I love Jerry’s perspective, and I love how art has the power to evoke different emotions, interpretations, and ideas in each person who experiences it.

The Enduring Power of Art

The Talking Galleries symposium was phenomenal, highlighting the diverse perspectives and the ever-evolving nature of the art world. The symposium also emphasized the resilience and adaptability of the art community. In a world that is constantly changing, art remains a constant source of inspiration, reflection, and connection. To paraphrase English painter Evelyn De Morgan, life is short, but art is eternal.