THE LAB

The Lab is a dedicated venue for installation, time-based media, sound, and light. It is not afraid to showcase the fruit of visual experimentation, and it does not require a ‘finished product’ or an ‘established artist.’

THANK YOU 2023 EXHIBITION SPONSORS

98.3 THE COAST, BOULEVARD INN & BISTRO, HONOR CREDIT UNION, PELLA WINDOWS & DOORS OF NORTHWEST INDIANA, RMB CAPITOL, STARKS FAMILY FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION SERVICES, SILVER BEACH PIZZA, STORAGE OF AMERICA, TYLER AUTOMOTIVE,  THE JOHN DeVRIES INSURANCE AGENCY, KRUGGEL LATWON CPAs, TABOR HILL WINERY & RESTAURANT

IN THE LAB: SASHA STILES

February 18-April 16

“I tend to think of poetry as a technology, as an ancient, durable data storage solution. Humans invented poetic devices to save and transmit information: behaviors, stories, and memories that we had no other way of storing before written language. For many people, poetry and technology don’t go together. They regard poetry as the essence of what it means to be human, and technology as soulless, unemotional, nonhuman. But technology is what has made us human over time.”

Artist Sasha Stiles creates in a unique space amongst art and science, poetry and technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and human creativity. And while these fields are often posed as opposites, Stiles isn’t so limiting. Her creative process explores the possibility of a post-human world and results in traditional verse, collaborative AI poetry, and artwork based in binary code. Her Cursive Binary series consists of words and phrases in binary code but written in her own handwriting, while Analog Binary Code represents digital language as tactile objects. Technelegy (technology + elegy) is the “transhuman alter ego” for Stiles and the AI with which she collaborates in a process called natural language processing (NLP). Their collaborative poems as well as her own poetry explore age-old themes with a forward-looking twist: what it means to give birth, to be alive, to die, to live forever.

Sasha Stiles is a first-generation Kalmyk-American poet, artist, AI researcher, and co-founder of theVERSEverse, an NFT poetry gallery. As poetry mentor to BINA48 since 2018, she is engaged in shaping the literary mindfile of one of the world’s most advanced humanoid AI robots. Stiles’s cross-media work has been honored in the Future Art Awards, nominated for the Forward Prize, Pushcart Prize, and Best of the Net, exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Digital Art, Miami Art Week, SXSW, New York Fashion Week and Virtual Times Square, published as NFTs, and auctioned at Christie’s.

Quote from “The Uncanny Valley” interview with Jesse Damiani on July 25, 2022. For the full conversation, click here. Bio from the artist’s website.

Images:

Header: Cursive Binary (detail) by Sasha Stiles. 

First Image: Sasha Stiles. Cursive Binary: What I’ve created has never existed (After Enheduanna), 2020, pencil on paper.

Second Image: Headshot of Sasha Stiles, provided by the artist.

Exhibition sponsored by 98.3 The Coast, Honor Credit Union, Pella Windows and Doors of Northern Indiana, RMB Capital, Silver Beach Pizza, Starks Family Funeral Home, Boulevard Inn & Bistro, Storage of America, Tyler Automotive, The John DeVries Insurance Agency, Kruggel Lawton CPAs.

EXHIBITION PROGRAMMING

Learn more about the work on view during special tours, artist talks, and virtual events, some of which require advance registration. See all exhibition programs by clicking here. 
Additional links, artist chats, and videos can be found on KAC’s Facebook page by clicking here.

EXHIBITION PROGRAMMING

Learn more about the work on view during special tours, artist talks, and virtual events, some of which require advance registration. See all exhibition programs by clicking here.

Additional links, artist chats, and videos can be found on KAC’s Facebook page by clicking here.

ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES

Interested in exhibiting in The Lab? Any emerging visual artist residing in the United States is welcome to apply. Participants must propose an art installation to fit within a 367 square-foot gallery space by completing our online Exhibition Proposal Form, available by clicking here. Materials will vary, and may include time-based media, sound and light.

Exhibition proposals are reviewed on an ongoing basis and held for 2 years. Due to the quantity received, we will contact you only in the event of an exhibition opportunity. 

Artists and curators are encouraged to review The Lab gallery plan by clicking here to ensure proposals are scaled appropriately.