Does an AI God Have an Ass? Lecture Performance by Zach Blas
As part of the opening of the exhibition New Rituals [for the End of the World] at HEK, Zach Blas presents a lecture performance in collaboration with the Critical Media Lab at HGK.
In his lecture performance Does an AI God Have an Ass?, Zach Blas explores the religious fantasies that have emerged around artificial intelligence. Beginning with Michelangelo’s depiction of God’s backside on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Blas draws a connection between art-historical imagery and contemporary visions of AI as a god-like force.
At the centre of the work is Salb Hacz, an AI mystic and self-proclaimed AI heretic. Through Hacz’s visions of bodies, backsides and hidden fissures, the lecture performance asks what the tech industry’s promises of salvation leave out. Blas examines how AI is often imagined in Silicon Valley as a disembodied, almost divine intelligence, while the real bodies, working conditions and invisible labour behind these systems are pushed out of view.
Does an AI God Have an Ass? is part of Blas’ series Silicon Traces, which engages with the histories, philosophies, fictions and future visions that shape Silicon Valley. The work reveals how technological promises, religious imagery and fantasies of power are deeply intertwined.
The lecture performance is presented as part of the opening of the exhibition New Rituals [for the End of the World] at HEK, in collaboration with the Critical Media Lab at HGK.
Zach Blas (*1981 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, USA) is an artist, writer and filmmaker. His practice examines digital technologies, the industries behind them and the power structures that shape and drive them. His work brings together critical research, technical experimentation and speculative concept development, spanning installations, moving image, sculpture, lecture performances, publications and web-based media.
In the exhibition New Rituals [for the End of the World] at HEK, Zach Blas is represented with the work 576 Tears.