{"id":2603,"date":"2020-01-31T18:52:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T01:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/?p=2603"},"modified":"2020-03-27T15:03:21","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T22:03:21","slug":"sixty-thousand-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/?p=2603","title":{"rendered":"Sixty Thousand Soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Exhibition:<\/strong><\/td>\nExhibited at International Center of Photography <\/a>, New York City,
\nJanuary 23 – May 17, 2020<\/tr>\n		Materials:<\/strong><\/td>\n3-channel video projection, computers, iPads, cameras<\/tr>\nDescription:<\/strong><\/td>\n“You\u2019re standing right now with nine delegates from 100 gangs. And there\u2019s over 100 more. That\u2019s 20,000 hard-core members. Forty thousand, counting affiliates, and 20,000 more, not organized but ready to fight. Sixty thousand soldiers. Now, there ain\u2019t but 20,000 police in the whole town. Can you dig it?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

This work uses an excerpt from Walter Hill\u2019s 1979 cult movie The Warriors, in which over one hundred rival gangs gather in an outdoor stadium at the invitation of Cyrus, leader of the Gramercy Riffs gang. Each gang has distinct demographic, stylistic, and sexual preferences, which they communicate through linguistic, sartorial, behavioral and visual signifiers.<\/p>\n

Sixty Thousand Soldiers<\/em> uses AI classifiers to group visitors’ faces into gangs, based on demographic, economic and occupational markers, and then uses a customized version of the notorious Deepfakes algorithm to switch visitors\u2019 faces into the film, in place of the original gangs. Faces swap at a variety of speeds and resolutions, and do not attempt to be seamless in all cases.<\/p>\n

Cyrus\u2019s speech contains a Marxist-inflected demand for class solidarity and armed revolution against the corrupt city police force, in which he hails the various gang members as \u201csoldiers\u201d in a unified army of collective resistance. This dramatic call-to-arms culminates with his sudden assassination, positioning Cyrus as a Che-like revolutionary martyr.<\/p>\n

The character of Cyrus is retained, not swapped, but all other characters are gradually swapped over the course of the work\u2019s exhibition. Due to its durational and interactive composition, the work evolves in relation to the profiles of its viewers. Hence the new gangs generated by the work reflect patterns of immigration, gentrification, and demographic shifts in a neighborhood that exemplifies the historical image of the United States as a \u201cnation of immigrants.\u201d Visitors will find themselves algorithmically segregated, an experience that is \u201cparticipatory\u201d yet not \u201cdemocratic,\u201d since it forecloses any sense of control over how one\u2019s profile is instrumentalized.<\/p>\n<\/tr>\n

Credits:<\/strong><\/td>\n\nWith thanks to the Center for Digital Art and Experimental Media (DXARTS), University of Washington. Software development by Jacob Fennell, Forrest Fabian Jesse and Yuying Hung. <\/tr>\n

Reviews\/News:<\/strong><\/td>\n15 Perspective-Altering Shows to See in New York City in 2020<\/a>
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IMAGES:<\/strong><\/td>\n\"Sixty<\/a><\/td>\n\"Sixty<\/a><\/td>\n\"Sixty<\/a><\/td>\n\"Sixty<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
IMAGES:<\/strong><\/td>\n\"Sixty<\/a><\/td>\n\"Sixty<\/a><\/td>\n\"Sixty<\/a><\/td>\n\"Sixty<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
VIDEO:<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

Exhibition: Exhibited at International Center of Photography , New York City, January 23 – May 17, 2020 Materials: 3-channel video projection, computers, iPads, cameras Description: “You\u2019re standing right now with nine delegates from 100 gangs. And there\u2019s over 100 more. That\u2019s 20,000 hard-core members. Forty thousand, counting affiliates, and 20,000 more, not organized but ready […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2603"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2677,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions\/2677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}