Chris Dorland's Glitch Art Explores Human-Digital Fusion at Lyles & King

Chris Dorland's exhibition 'Civilian' at Lyles & King from January 12 to February 11, 2018 presented works merging human and digital processes through intentional glitches. Located at 106 Forsyth Street in New York City, the show featured Alumacore prints and video works where digital malfunctions became co-creators alongside the artist. Dorland's pieces like Untitled (Overclock) (2017) and Untitled (Drone Psychic) (2017) incorporated distorted imagery from sources including makeup ads and video games, with digital artifacts obscuring original meanings. The video Untitled (memory cortex) (2017) displayed glitched footage from first-person shooter games with floating text fragments of computer code and Japanese message board comments. Works such as Untitled (Drift Upload) (2017) included fragments of racecars and cracked smartphone screen imagery, creating visual fractures that blur boundaries between physical and digital realms. Dorland's approach builds upon historical art practices embracing chance, from Dada and Surrealism to Francis Bacon's paint-throwing and John Cage's prepared pianos. The exhibition engaged with concepts of technological singularity and transhumanism, suggesting digital processes develop their own 'will' that influences artistic outcomes. Rather than depicting dystopian or utopian technological futures, Dorland creates an 'atopia' where human and machine agency become indistinguishable.