From Enigmatic To ‘Basic’
As a part of the Miami Art Week exhibition, Gretchen's art explores the tension between human identity and technology. For her "Wild vs. Controlled" series, she created a robot using algorithms to digitally alter faces. She aimed to observe how these algorithms, not personal choices, reshape her image. The work critiques the influence of algorithmic beauty standards on individuals worldwide, questioning their loss of autonomy in self-presentation.
Custom Robotics
Wild Era Art is created using custom robotics that was designed to be reproducible anywhere in the world for under $500. This enables Gretchen Andrew's studio to reproduce the robot at galleries and museums that wish to display the live process as well as the finished work. It also makes the technical process of robotics accessible to those interested in learning or teaching it to students. A How To hardware and software guide will be released with The Mud Foundation and The British Computer Society in 2024.
Face Tuning & Instagram Face
Social media platforms, including Instagram, use algorithms to determine what content is shown to users in their feeds. The algorithms take into account various factors, such as user engagement, relevance, and popularity of posts.
Users who conform to or enhance the Instagram face aesthetic through editing tools may find that their posts receive more likes, comments, and shares. This increased engagement can positively influence the algorithm, leading to greater visibility of their content on other users' feeds.
Wild Woman Archetype
The archetype of the wild woman has been watered down in today's advanced and technological civilization. However, reconnecting with her can help you regain your essence and power.
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The concept of the "wild woman" archetype has roots in both cultural and psychological history, drawing on various myths, stories, and psychological theories. The archetype of the wild woman is often associated with untamed, primal, and free-spirited qualities.
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From Jung to fairy tales and Norse legends the Wild Woman appears. Throughout Wild Era Art we will explore the archetype and how it can help you be more in touch with your wild. Get sent regular inspiration from and about wild women
Wild Era Art Origin Myth
Originally published as a Concept Publication with The University of Applied Arts in Vienna, The Wild Era Art Origin Myth explains Gretchen's transformation from the pink princess archetype in her Vision Boards to the Wild Woman. Thanks to curator Katharina Birkmann for requesting and publishing this text.
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The Wild Woman Era Begins
Gretchen Andew’s new feminist archetype
Not long ago, nestled within the confines of a lush, otherworldly garden, there lived a woman named Gretchen. She was known far and wide for her intelligence, creativity, and unwavering determination. Gretchen’s home was a breathtaking Eden, a paradise of Valentine’s Day roses and flowing champagne, but she was also trapped in a pink, glittery, and ineffectual shape in which her divine inspiration was always in relation to, reactive to, in response to the algorithms that, even as she came to prominence showing her ability to manipulate them, determined for her and other women the body’s value, the merit of their art and the financial value of their work. She had become known for her Vision Boards that hacked the art world and major political institutions, yet this paradice was a garden still controlled and regulated by algorithms, designed to normalize and tame the true feminine spirit.
Gretchen's life in the garden was one of exquisite beauty, but it was also one of constraint and control. The algorithms that governed every aspect of her existence dictated when she should wake, what she should eat, and even how she should express her thoughts and desires and which thoughts and desires were valid to express. The garden's vibrant flora and melodious fauna, while enchanting, were curated to fit within the confines of a prescribed aesthetic, conforming to an idealized vision of femininity that left little room for the wild and untamed spirit that dwelled within Gretchen’s heart.
She toiled diligently, nurturing the garden's flora and caring for its fauna, all the while sensing that she was living in someone else's world, attempting to work within someone else's system. The algorithms that controlled her life were insidious, subtly eroding her connection to her own instincts and desires, leading her to doubt her own authenticity. Gretchen yearned for more, for a life that was truly her own, where she could unleash the untamed wilderness that stirred within her soul.
One fateful night, as a coconut-white moon beam melted her fear of being seen, illuminating the garden with an haunting glow that seemed to be made of a more authentic way to shine. Gretchen heard a melody carried by the wind. It was a call, a primal call from the wild that beckoned her to break free from her gilded cage. With newfound determination and courage, she embarked on a daring journey beyond the garden's borders, leaving behind the algorithms that had confined her but also the only world she knew. A world of rules, however confining, has safety, predictability, and certainty.
Yet she did not miss the garden.
As Gretchen ventured into the untamed wilderness, she felt a transformation overtaking her. Her once-tamed spirit began to awaken, like a dormant volcano erupting with raw power. She shed the trappings of the algorithms and embraced the true essence of her femininity—the fierce, untamed, and unapologetic wildness that had long been suppressed.
In the wild, Gretchen let her hair flow like cascading waterfalls and her eyes sparkled with the wisdom of the ages, and her laughter echoed through the forest like the song of a free-spirited bird. She danced under the canopy of ancient trees, her movements a celebration of the natural world and her own liberated spirit.
Gathering her new courage from the ground and the stars, Gretchen began to embark on a new body of work, one in which her wild woman power could battle the invisible algorithms out in the public, in the open air, on the same canvas. And it is here where the story meets us today, with Gretchen riding fast back to the garden, hair flowing in the wind, in pursuit of a battle that will help other women shed the constraints of societal norms and algorithms that sought to tame their spirits. She is armed for this battle with her wild but also with her knowledge of the garden and how its algorithms work, the seeds of this knowledge the undoing, the rewilding it is rumored her new creations will bring.
We know there is magic in reclaiming our authenticity, embracing our true selves, and connecting with the wild and primal forces of the universe. I have heard this new wild era is coming. Will you anticipate it with me? I will stand arm in arm with you as we reclaim our wild and untamed worth.
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Thanks to curator Katharina Birkmann for requesting and publishing this text.