Vellum LA presents:
Brief Histories of Simulated Lifeforms: A Sofia Crespo Solo Exhibition
Opening Reception:
Thursday, July 21, 7-9 PM
On View at Vellum LA:
July 21- August 7, 2022
Vellum LA
7673 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles CA 90046
Vellum LA is pleased to announce Brief Histories of Simulated Lifeforms, Sofia Crespo’s first-ever solo show, curated by Jesse Damiani and Sinziana Velicescu. The exhibition will take place from July 21 - August 7, 2022. All work will be presented on state-of-the-art Luma Canvas LED displays.
When most people think of artificial intelligence, they imagine inorganic hardware and machines. Sofia Crespo has established herself as a pathbreaking artist working with AI through an alternative approach: asking how algorithms might let us explore biology, nature, and evolution with fresh eyes.
Crespo’s artistic explorations of simulated life bring the organic into the digital. Her work not only helps viewers imagine what kind of speculative lifeforms might one day populate the metaverse, it also holds a mirror back to the biological world of the here and now, revealing how carbon-based life uses “artificial” mechanisms to simulate itself and evolve. In this process, Crespo gives viewers the permission to find wonder in the algorithmic while deepening appreciation for the organic.
“The plan, a memory of the future, tries on reality to see if it fits.” — Laurence Gonzales, Deep Survival
Brief Histories draws artworks from two bodies of Crespo’s work: Artificial Natural History and Sediment Nodes. The former is framed as a “book that never was,” offering a collection of botanical and zoological observations of speculative life. The latter turns its focus toward sediment, exploring the “interconnections of what we assume inert,” even though floating particulate matter in liquid signals movement, and is itself “full of life, color and form.”
Taken together, these works reflect a profound relationship between the physical and digital. Crespo troubles the usual binary approach to the two, proposing instead that each has valuable insights to bring to the other.
Works from Brief Histories of Simulated Lifeforms will be available for sale as NFTs through SuperRare.
About Sofia Crespo
Sofia Crespo is an artist with a focus on artificial life, her practice is driven by a huge interest in biologically-inspired technologies. One of her main focuses is the way organic life uses artificial mechanisms to simulate itself and evolve. With an interest in the workings of the human brain, Crespo looks at the similarities between the techniques of AI image formation, and the way that humans express themselves creatively, and cognitively recognize their world. Her works have been exhibited around the world both physically and digitally, such as Nvidia’s GTC AI Gallery, Ars Electronica Gallery Spaces Garden, MAXXI and many more, she also gave a talk at TED 2022.
