Latest Work
Am I Human? 2023
Video & Sound by Gladys Lou
"Gladys Lou hurls home-made images of herself against a swift torrent of loading files, digital code and the general barrage of representational media imagery saturating daily life online. The features of faces and bodies merge and split apart, ceaselessly. Human identity is caught and fixed in normative binary categories, but the ‘glitch’ strategies of artists can struggle against the system, creating new notions of rhizomatic selfhood."
– Adrian Martin
Screening:
Information Screening, International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2024
Video Fever, Trinity Square Video x Vtape x Image Festival, 2023
Vector Festival (a body as a fault in the system, in a system of faults), InterAccess
Am I Human? is a post-human exploration of data, artificial intelligence, and surveillance using video and sound. The glitch on screen disrupts communication and represents my questioning about the difficulty in being human in normative cultural standards. I was inspired by artworks representing beings beyond the human from different art historical periods (ancient Egypt, Greek, and the Renaissance). Skeptical about the accuracy of machine learning algorithms, I have analyzed images of myself from social media using facial recognition techniques, which generated a wide range of results regarding my age, ethnicity, and emotion. By portraying the way visual information loses familiarity and becomes incomprehensive when constructed by technology, I aim to challenge the precarious relationship we have with the digital world.
"Gladys Lou hurls home-made images of herself against a swift torrent of loading files, digital code and the general barrage of representational media imagery saturating daily life online. The features of faces and bodies merge and split apart, ceaselessly. Human identity is caught and fixed in normative binary categories, but the ‘glitch’ strategies of artists can struggle against the system, creating new notions of rhizomatic selfhood."
– Adrian Martin
Screening:
Information Screening, International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2024
Video Fever, Trinity Square Video x Vtape x Image Festival, 2023
Vector Festival (a body as a fault in the system, in a system of faults), InterAccess
Am I Human? is a post-human exploration of data, artificial intelligence, and surveillance using video and sound. The glitch on screen disrupts communication and represents my questioning about the difficulty in being human in normative cultural standards. I was inspired by artworks representing beings beyond the human from different art historical periods (ancient Egypt, Greek, and the Renaissance). Skeptical about the accuracy of machine learning algorithms, I have analyzed images of myself from social media using facial recognition techniques, which generated a wide range of results regarding my age, ethnicity, and emotion. By portraying the way visual information loses familiarity and becomes incomprehensive when constructed by technology, I aim to challenge the precarious relationship we have with the digital world.
Awards
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22nd IA Current Curator/ 2023
InterAccess First Prize, Video Fever/ 2023 Trinity Square Video x Images Festival x Vtape RBC Emerging Artist Network / 2022-2023 Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery Winner in Multimedia Arts (Emerging), 27th Annual Mississauga Arts Award / 2022 Mississauga Arts Council Killam Fellowship (University of Washington） / 2022 Fulbright Canada LOVE Lab Artist Residency / 2021-2022 Art Gallery of Mississauga University of Toronto Student Leadership Award / 2021-2022
University of Toronto C Magazine Award for Excellence in Art Writing / 2020-2021
C Magazine |
