BORBAY

Last night I attended a screening of Ray Kurzweil’s (in clip above) feature film, “The Singularity is Near”.

According to  Mr. Kurzweil, singularity marks the moment, “nonbiological intelligence will have access to its own design and will be able to improve itself in an increasingly rapid redesign cycle. We’ll get to a point where technical progress will be so fast that unenhanced human intelligence will be unable to follow it. That will mark the Singularity.”

Imagine the Matrix and Being John Malkevich happening. Fear the Terminator showing up, prepared to destroy your credit score. Doomsday aside, all I could think of was art. After the jump, more on Singularity… and Artificial Picasso.

The evening began with a discourse on the rapid, predictable development of technology; as the speed increases exponentially, the cost decreases (gradually, har har) – thus bringing progressively better iPhones to the market at shorter intervals.

Later, we learned about Artificial Intelligence and nano technology. Oh, so you have the dia-beet-is? No problem. Let’s put some nano-chips in your cerebellum… just don’t forget to download the latest software.

A near blasphemous exaggeration, but not quite.

Essentially, Mr. Kurzweil predicts we will reach Singularity in 2045. This means, get with the technology or get lost.

So what about art? Will Artificial Intelligence create like Picasso? Will Artificial Picasso be too precise? More experimental? Aren’t the inherent flaws, passions and imbalances of the human condition the driver behind art? Will artificial beings create better art imitating the human condition? Will they do it so quickly, an original Artificial Picasso will be in every home? Warhol would be pumped.

Imagine trying to teach an artificial human the proper usage of they’re, their and there. Worse yet, the concepts of right and wrong. “It’s good to go jogging and say thank you. It’s bad to kill people, and steal buses.” All of this said as the nice man unwinds from a long day at the office with a beer, playing Grand Theft Auto.

If you thought having your 10 year old sister and 50 year old mother on Facebook, strap on your safety belts and put your seat in its upright position. Shit’s about to get weird.

MAD and Madoff

I finished a painting of the Museum of Art and Design, starring Bernie Madoff. Painting in Columbus Circle was a blast, I will have to do it again.

Valerie’s New York, Paperclip Cufflinks

I had the pleasure of being interviewed on Valerie’s New York. Come for the art banter, stay for the drunken antics and paperclip cufflinks.

Patti Smith Lays Smack Down

Last week, I attended the A.C.E. gala for Henry Buhl’s 80th birthday – I charged the dance floor to give props to Patti Smith (pictured above, laying the smack down.) The Figure Five is now on an undisclosed collectors wall.

Penn Gets New Studio, Sweaty

Over the weekend Jeremy and I delivered his recently acquired Bowie painting. On the way, we stopped at his new studio – pictured above, next to a pensive Jeremy Penn.