Exhibit by Canon Parker
The title of this show comes from the Richard Brautigan poem, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace,” in which Brautigan envisions a utopian future created by the symbiotic fusion of technology and nature.
Jessie Wilber Gallery
July 12 – August 2, 2024
Reception
Opening: Friday, July 12th from 5:00-8:00pm
Artist Statement
Omnipresent computers enable humanity to exist in a state of perfect equilibrium with this “cybernetic ecology” — a high-tech Eden in which all the struggles of the world have been resolved.
The colorful optimism of this dreamy poem is provocative, its enthusiasm ironically disturbing, prompting us to wonder: What could possibly go wrong? Though written in 1967, the quandaries it evokes are now more relevant than ever.
Technology, as described by Marshall McLuhan, functions as an extension of human anatomy; thus, in a physiological sense, the modern person inhabits a vast cyborgian body composed of interpenetrating networks. If we consider machines in the abstract to be anything that breaks, modulates, or permits a change of any kind (à la Deleuze and Guattari), we discover that machines are inextricably fundamental to our psychological identities as well as our physical bodies and environment.
Even as technology empowers us in novel ways, it changes who and what we are. The paradox of technological progress is that expanding human autonomy requires us to alter human nature in proportion. When we upgrade our machines, we replace aspects of our very selves, thereby transforming the human experience at an accelerating pace as we careen towards Brautigan’s vision of technological ubiquity. The future of humanity, be it paradise or perdition, is faced with a crucial question: What will be left of us if the machines take control?
Artist Bio
Canon Parker (b. 1996) was raised in Billings, Montana, and received a home-school education. He studied at Montana State University, graduating in 2020 with a BFA in Sculpture and minors in Physics and Art History. Before graduating, he started Canon Parker Art Services LLC to facilitate a wide range of art-related projects in the region. Canon is currently the Site Operations Manager for Tinworks Art and continues to make his work in a subterranean lair near downtown Bozeman.
