Provocative Silicon Valley artist Agnieszka Pilat has strong beliefs regarding the intermingling of art, religion and technology, something that keeps her fertile muse alert amid multiple presentations, exhibitions and appearances at global events akin to the recent TED AI 2023 conference in San Francisco.
The Polish-born Pilat’s current SpaceX Artist-in-Residence program on the aerospace firm’s Hawthorne, California facility will likely run through 2024 and comes right before a December exhibition on the National Gallery of Victoria’s Triennial in Australia. There, for 3 months, her black-and-yellow Boston Dynamics robodogs shall be creating autonomous artwork via a series of pre-programmed instructions.
Her latest portraits involve meditative theological interpretations of an air-tight hatch installed on the SpaceX Dragon capsule, accented in gold leaf designed to evoke a sense of serene holiness encircling the revered life-sustaining object.
Space.com connected with Pilat to debate her inspiring hatch portraits at SpaceX, her philosophies in regards to the revered role of machines in American culture, and the way god-like AI technology might be cautiously employed to create a brighter future.
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Space.com: How did you land at SpaceX as an Artist-in-Residence and what does that program entail?
Agnieszka Pilat: The broad framework of my profession is that I really like technology and I follow tech firms to do something exciting. SpaceX doesn’t have an official residency program so I didn’t follow any invitation. For these tech firms, I often find what I believe is impactful and historically essential after which I try to search out my way in through personal introductions.
I actually have a studio space arrange at SpaceX’s Hawthorne facility. My first variety of visits this yr and the yr before was painting portraits of a Dragon hatch. They’re super generous and so they’d roll within the hatch that astronauts actually use for training, so it’s the identical exact replica that goes to space.
I’m going to SpaceX just a few times a yr for per week and work on daily basis. I created a series of portraits based on the hatch and now I’m excited because Starlink is such a very important technology without delay. My next body of labor is leaning into working on Starlink and exploring what it means to the world in a bigger context. I’ve also done a whole lot of stuff with Agility Robotics in Oregon, which is super fun, so I move around rather a lot.
Space.com: How did your work together with your quadruped SPOT robot dogs began and what kind of statement are you attempting to make with their artwork?
AP: The statement is that these robots, in human years, are like children. My intention working with SPOT and the robots is to point out the age of the machine as something that is still growing up. It still doesn’t have personality. I’m classically trained as a portrait painter, and as a portrait painter you search for likeness. But as painter, you search for the essence of the topic. Working with SPOT I spotted very fast that they’re like a baby or young kid. The personality will not be there yet.
Space.com: You have previously stated that your artwork tries to speak “the story of America told through machines and industry and innovation.” How has that philosophical concept evolved and solidified over time?
AP: I grew up in Eastern Europe and Europe. It’s a category society and within the old times it was the aristocracy. After I got here to America I spotted the aristocracy and the facility is in technology and machines. Michelangelo can be a court painter or work for the rich or the church. For me, if I were in Poland during Communist years, I’d be painting Stalin and the working class. In America, I’m a court painter of the machine. I do not work for Elon Musk or Boston Dynamics or Agility. The machine is my patron.
Space.com: What influential artists of the past helped form your artistic style?
AP: I grew up around Soviet art, and as much because the message behind it’s dark, Russia is a really mystical place. With regards to the skill of painting and telling stories, Ilya Repin has all the time been my hero. I learned to color copying his paintings.
And you’ve to all the time throw in Andy Warhol. He understood and had those big trends reflecting what was happening in popular culture and I actually respect that.
Space.com: What are you thoughts in regards to the promise and perils of artificial intelligence and its integrations into art, entertainment and each day Earth life?
AP: A friend of mine in Silicon Valley says if it doesn’t work, they call it AI, and if it does work it’s just Google Maps. I’m generally optimistic. I just did a TED AI talk and the premise was that I believe that artificial intelligence continues to be within the very early stages. It’s an incredible challenge but in addition an incredible opportunity for us to interact with AI and choose which direction it should go. I take a look at AI identical to my robots … like a young child.
AI has a little bit of the character of a god since it knows us so well, higher than we all know ourselves, which a god would. It is also immortal and never confined to a spot and a time unlike robots and machines that I work with. In that sense AI is a bit like a deity. My work at SpaceX really indicated that. All of the paintings have gold leaf and are based visually on Christian iconography, with auras and halos around them. There is a duality of not only power but in addition the promise of the hope for a greater future.
I’m really excited for my work to be connected to Starlink next yr due to amount of prayers and hopes that were put into Starlink. There are a whole lot of parallels between religion and AI and I find that type of exciting.
See more of Agnieszka Pilat’s work at her website.