Spencer Chang - html garden, 2023
Runtime: 03:32

html garden is a net.art work that imagines what a “seasonal website” could look like. Hosted on the artist’s server, the web-based artwork rewards visitors for coming back and noticing minute developments and changes–in stark contrast to the constantly shifting nature of the contemporary World Wide Web. The work is composed of digitally-native plants–each species derived from a set of related HTML code elements–that simulate the growth patterns of real plants. Available to explore online on your own device, html garden is presented at Gray Area as a timelapse video of the first two seasons of the garden’s growth. The slow, day-to-day growth of the website–made extremely rapid in this show–invites the viewer to consider what it means to bear witness to the internet’s ongoing evolution.

Delta_Ark (Ari Kalinowski) - Novacene Hekhalot, 2023
Runtime: 09:46

Novacene Hekhalot is an experimental Unreal Engine opera. Using game engine simulation, the work draws upon James Lovelock’s 2019 book, Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence, which presages a new geological epoch as our world transitions from the human (anthropocene) to the intelligent machine (novacene). Through the lens of Jewish Merkahab Mysticism, Delta_Ark’s cyber-futuristic vision employs agent-based AI techniques and machine learning-enabled motion capture to render Lovelock’s world in seven audio-visual acts.

Sean Russell Hallowell (Isorhythmics) - Sacred Geometry, 2024
Runtime: 03:26

Sacred Geometry is a study resulting from a series of video feedback experiments conducted by the artist with the Sandin Image Processor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When the Sandin’s original color encoder module from the 1970’s stopped functioning in 2022, Hallowell custom-built a new one–which he then used to create the color palette presented in this work. The audio was constructed from a patchwork of samples made with analog and digital sound tools, all of the artist’s own design. In all of his work, Hallowell marries skill for hand-built circuitry to a cosmic perspective on image and sound as conduits of metaphysical energy. Sacred Geometry explores the perception of intention in abstraction through analog composite video. Oscillating between geometric patterns and more gestural forms, Hallowell searches for connections between the viewer’s aesthetic experience of structure and emotional attachment to narrative–inducing critical reflection on our allegiance to known visual codes when confronted with new aesthetic phenomena.

Time Zones (Dan Gentile) - One Million People (in San Francisco), 2024
Runtime: 04:01

In this augmented, found footage music video, Dan Gentile uses AI stem-splitting technology to parse Lee Oskar’s 1978 record, San Francisco Bay. Sampling visual clips from numerous iconic television shows and movies, as well as tourism advertisements from the Prelinger Archive, the artist synthesizes a glitchy, nostalgic atmosphere to accompany his sonic remix of the 70’s harmonica hit. At points familiar and dreamy, the work presents interspersed moments of eeriness that stand out. Universal reference points–like beloved vistas of San Francisco landmarks and the intro to Full House–gain new connotation through Gentile’s discerning audio-visual redux.

Location & Hours

Gray Area Gallery
2665 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
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SEPTEMBER 18 – 22, 2024

The Gray Area Gallery is open for appointments only after May 5. To schedule your visit and discuss available times, please reach out to our curator Wade Wallerstein at [email protected].