ARTFEED — Contemporary Art Intelligence

Trevor Paglen: Most Art Today Is Digital Art

publication · 2026-07-06

Trevor Paglen's new book 'How to See Like a Machine' collects a decade of essays arguing that AI systems are part of a longer history of machine vision and surveillance. He co-curated 'Zero 10' at Art Basel, asserting that digital art belongs in contemporary art history, not at its margins. In an interview with Anika Meier for SLEEK, Paglen discusses the changing status of digital art, curation as storytelling, and why art operates differently from algorithmic systems. He notes that most art today is digital, but the label has been avoided since the late 1990s. Paglen distinguishes between artworks made for humans and images made for machines, and critiques the 'society of the psyop' where images look back at viewers. He values curation for creating frameworks, but says curating is too labor-intensive to do regularly.

Key facts

  • Trevor Paglen published 'How to See Like a Machine', a collection of essays written over a decade.
  • He co-curated 'Zero 10' at Art Basel, a curated initiative for digital art.
  • Paglen argues that most art today is digital, but the term has been marginalized since the late 1990s.
  • He distinguishes between artworks for humans and images made for machines.
  • Paglen introduces the concept of 'society of the psyop', modifying Guy Debord's spectacle theory.
  • He believes curation is a form of storytelling that creates frameworks for audiences.
  • Paglen says curating is too much work to do regularly; he prefers making art.
  • The interview was conducted by Anika Meier for SLEEK magazine.
  • Zero 10 included works by Vera Molnár, Harold Cohen, William Latham, and others.
  • Paglen wanted Zero 10 to avoid a single Instagrammable focal point.

Entities

Artists

Institutions

Locations

  • Basel
  • Switzerland
  • London
  • United Kingdom
  • San Francisco
  • United States
  • New York

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