Our Friends Electric
QUAD GALLERY
Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS
Our Friends Electric features artists who explore a range of themes and ideas relating to robotics, Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and synthetic biology, highlighting our hopes and fears for a future that is continually shaped by technological advance. To what extent do we - will we - control this technology, these machines... and will they control us? How far can we allow A.I. to advance, and what is the scope of our duty of care?
There has been a recent glut of news reports and articles on social media networks that have focused on the idea of robots and A.I. replacing human beings in the workplace. Added to this is a latent fear involving apocalyptic scenarios where A.I. machines rebel against us; yet advances in robotics, A.I. and synthetic biological research also point to a bright future free of disease, where as we live longer our lives are made easy.
The artists gathered together for Our Friends Electric draw inspiration from front-line scientific research, taking on the role of researcher and even the guise of mad scientist, offering a creative – and emotive – understanding of the continuing moral and ethical questions that surround new and evolving technology.
Artists: Alex Pearl, Anna Dumitriu + Alex May, boredomresearch (Vicky Isley + Paul Smith), Joey Holder, Kim Asendorf + Ole Fach, Stanza
Find out more: derbyquad.co.uk
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From 01 July 2017 to 10 September 2017.