Brian Droitcour curates a guide to navigating the current media landscape through the work of tech-savvy artists and writers, focusing on exhibitions in Brooklyn and Queens. The guide highlights Porpentine's show "Xrafstar World" at Haul Gallery in Gowanus, which features poster-prints of drawings depicting characters from their stories and games, made with different digital brushes. Droitcour contrasts this DIY, performance-driven work with major institutions' engagement with AI, such as Sasha Stiles' "A Living Poem" at MoMA, which he criticizes for echoing technology's promises of polish rather than probing its complications.
This article matters because it critiques how the art world often fails to meaningfully engage with digital technology and AI, opting for sanitized, surface-level presentations instead of exploring the complexities of online life, identity, and community. By spotlighting Porpentine's work, which embraces dehumanizing categories and addresses trans existence amid political attacks, Droitcour argues for a more personal, structural approach to digital art that reflects the fragmented, meme-driven reality of contemporary society.