Susan Silas, "there is no time without heat (video still)"

Description

Susan Silas, "there is no time without heat (video still)"
Archival Inkjet
9.35 x 7 inches

Artist Bio: My work explores our understanding of selfhood and how new technologies are affecting that understanding, examining the meaning of embodiment at a moment when artificial intelligence, Whole Brain Emulation and External Wombs are entering the realm of the possible. I am interested in the aging body, gender roles, the fragility of sentient being and the potential outcome of human enhancements to the body through new technologies and how that will change the way we take care of ourselves and our environment. 

Artist Statement: "there is no time without heat" gets its title from the physicist Carlo Rovelli, who explains that almost all physical phenomena can be run forward and backward, with the exception of entropy—thus creating the problem of mortality. During Covid, the fear of contagion and body temperature became inextricably intertwined, a new form of surveillance appeared in public spaces: the taking of body temperature. Our internal temperature became yet another data point for collection, and we had little control, if we want access to public spaces. This work, made with a thermal camera, recorded the heat from my body as I moved through various poses on pedestals of different heights and configurations, sometimes settling into classical poses and sometimes into less familiar ones. It may be helpful to know that these images were shot in broad daylight. What is being recorded is the heat emanating from my body.