Book Launch + Screening

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace Book Launch + Screening

The Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) and CalArts presented All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace from Sept. 12, 2024 to Feb. 23, 2025, as part of the Getty’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide. The multifaceted project featured an exhibition, a screening, and a performance series.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace at REDCAT addressed one of the most pressing issues of our time—the impact of artificial intelligence—by proposing alternative directions for its future and how it changes the relationship between the human and nonhuman. In 1967, Caltech poet-in-residence Richard Brautigan imagined a coming future “where mammals and computers/ live together in mutually / programming harmony.” Borrowing its title from Brautigan’s poem, the exhibition and performance series looked to new models of AI proposed by BIPOC, feminist, nonwestern, and nonbinary systems of thought. How can these conceptions of technology and intelligence reclaim AI’s potential? All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace expanded public understanding of artificial intelligence by delving into the pressing questions it presented, from how technology alters the understanding of the human and nonhuman connection, to investigating its potential as a liberative tool.

The publication All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace combines contributions by the participating artists with invited contributors to inform the next generation of AI—rooted in indigenous belief systems and feminist, queer, and decolonial thought. Edited by Daniela Lieja Quintanar with Talia Heiman, the book includes text contributions by Nora Al-Badri, Minne Atairu, Back to Back Theatre, Stephanie Dinkins, Annie Dorsen, Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, Interspecifics, Kite* with Scott Benesiinaabandan and Jason Edward Lewis, Charmaine Poh, João Ribas, Sarah Rosalena, and Kira Xonorika. The book features documentation of the exhibition and performances by Arca, Nao Bustamante, rafa esparza, MUXX, Kite and Interspecifics, and images of Manthia Diawara’s film.

Published by CalArts in collaboration with REDCAT and East of Borneo, the soft cover book marks the culmination of a multiyear research, exhibition, performance, and publication project. The project was initiated and directed by João Ribas, Steven D. Lavine Executive Director of REDCAT and Vice President for Cultural Partnerships. The exhibition was curated by Daniela Lieja Quintanar with Talia Heiman. The performance program was organized by Edgar Miramontes, Katy Dammers, Daniela Lieja Quintanar, and Talia Heiman. The publication was made possible with the guidance of Adriana Widdoes and the East of Borneo team. The book design is by Ella Gold*.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. PST ART: Art & Science Collide, the latest edition of this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is a Getty initiative. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art.

The exhibition is funded in part with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation.