Yael Eylat Van-Essen PhD – Curator / Researcher

In the past decades scientific and technological innovations, more than expressing futuristic visions, have come to mark a new phase in a mutating reality whose consequences in real-time are difficult for us to comprehend. The desire to explore, and culturally metabolize, the meanings we can derive from these innovations have led many artists in recent years to integrate new means of expressions that originate with these scientific and technological inventions. The goal of the resulting creative endeavors is to examine and expose the philosophical, political, social and cultural implications of these innovations on our human existence. Questions concerning the nature of life, and the mechanisms that comprise it, the limits of human cognition, the relationships between the natural and artificial, the limitations on representation, and regard for new definitions of time and space, are at the center of the artwork presented.

The exhibition “Art, Science and Technology – An Israeli perspective” displayed artwork created in Israel by artists and designers adopting practices from the fields of science and technology. Among the works presented, some are based on studies conducted in the fields of robotics, brain research, information technology and artificial intelligence; some develop alternative models of interaction and perception, while others, explore a new aesthetic language. Some of the works attempt to innovate and examine the changing boundaries of artistic practice, while others articulate a critical perspective at the new reality created.