Deus Aut Machina

Deus Aut Machina is part of the Time Travelers project, structured differently from the other parts, which are mostly paintings and sculptures paired with poems in dialogue.

It is a large installation of fifteen paintings, grown out of the current zeitgeist around AI: the rapid changes all around us, and our anxieties about the future. Thinking about other times in history when change almost outran us, and how people coped…the early adopters, the luddites, and those in between…and the role of spirituality, religions, and yes, magic and astrology, in making sense of a world that changes too fast.

The writings began as excerpts from my long philosophical discussions with several AI systems. I planned to mix my prodding questions with the most thought provoking answers I got…until I woke up one day with a poem that made my questions irrelevant.

‘For the betterment of robots’ is the answer to the question I didn’t dare to ask.

All that was left to the machine was to create the soundtrack

The installation will be unveiled October 15, 2026 at the opening of Art Fair Tampa.

My poem and the soundtrack below: