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Welcome to the Machine

Dec 8, 2023 — Mar 16, 2024

Coinciding with the exhibition of artist David Levine’s Dissolution, on view in the Museum’s Amphitheater Gallery, Science on Screen presents a selection of films that depict humans reconstituted in computerized worlds. Each of the films represents the landscape of these worlds in a unique way. Sometimes it is through groundbreaking CGI (Tron, The Lawnmower Man). At other times, the human body is the portal (eXistenZ, The Matrix). And in some films, society itself is computerized (Alphaville, THX 1138, World on a Wire). Artists including Hannah Whitaker and John Menick push the boundaries of form to grapple with the implications of more recent innovations. All these works speak to an angst most palpable with the explosion of internet usage in the 1990s, but which can be seen in earlier dystopian portrayals where technology is synonymous with state power, surveillance, and control. The series will also include a panel discussion with Levine titled “<types furiously> I’m in!” 

Organized by Sonia Epstein, Curator of Science & Technology

Part of our ongoing Science on Screen series

Image: Operator (Hannah Whitaker, 2022)

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Past Films in Series

Eight human-sized figures seen from a distance standing against a vast blue sky horizon at twilight with some stars just coming out

Knit’s Island
A young bald man in white looks up

THX 1138
A man in a space helmet reclines, with reflections of lights on the glass viser

World on a Wire
A man wearing a VR headset and looking vacantly off screen

Johnny Mnemonic
A black and white image of a man in a fedora sits next to a woman putting her finger to her lips in a "be quiet" expression.

Alphaville
A CGI animated figure with its arms stretched out and wide gaping mouth looking at camera with angry expression

The Lawnmower Man
A hologram of a face floats in the middle of a blue digital box

< types furiously > I’m in!
A man and woman lie on a bed apart from each other, connected by fleshy umbilical-like cords in their stomachs

eXistenZ
two people with glowing body suits and helmets stand in a sparse virtual world

Tron
an animated image of a woman sitting in profile against a gloomy grey cityscape

Ghost in the Shell
A man and woman in sunglasses and wearing leather hold each other and look down.

The Matrix + Operator