ARTIST SUZANNE KITE DEBUTS NEW SHOW IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE VERA LIST CENTER FOR ART AND POLITICS

NEW SCHOOL NEWS, DECEMBER 13, 2021

“Where does art come from?” “When I write a song, where does that come from?” “When I make a new technology, how do I make it in a way that is both ethical and good?”

These questions, and more, helped inspire Oglála Lakȟóta artist Suzanne Kite’s new show Hél čhaŋkú kiŋ ȟpáye (There lies the road), which was recently exhibited at the PS122 Gallery in New York City. The artistic project, which was produced at the invitation of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, considers the ethical creation of artwork using artificial intelligences through the development of protocols based on Lakȟóta ontologies.

For this site-specific installation, Kite and a team of collaborators developed a body interface for movement performances, carbon fiber and stone sculptures, immersive audio-visual installation, and graphics. Together the works on view reconsider our current and future relationships to nonhumans, especially to technology and artificial intelligence, and attempt to establish a sense of relationality between gallery visitors and the computer as a nonhuman entity.

“I think the themes of the show are very pressing,” said Kite. “I’m trying to create methodologies that can help people create in an ethical way. Creating anything computationally right now is an inherent failure because of how the supply chain is set up. It’s very easy to critique computation and the unethical practices. The challenge to everybody is to come up with generative ways to do things ethically, which means reaching into ways that we’ve done for millennia. We know how to do these things, but we’ve chosen not to because of capitalism.”

Will Wilbur, New School News