Spanning works created over the past year, STRIPDE, Ken Wiatrek’s newest exhibition, explores the pervasive influence of technology on our connections to the world. The works in STRIPDE delve into how our perceptions and expectations of media shape our lived experiences. STRIPDE, an abstraction of “stripe,” draws inspiration from the fundamental role of stripes in CRT television image creation—a vision of a technological future and a visual element echoed throughout the exhibition. Here, artist and machine collaborate, capturing a unique form of contemporary chaos and entropy.

This partnership allows the machine a voice, celebrating its own language and solidifying its crucial role in Wiatrek’s creative process. Drawing on a wealth of influences, much like a Large Language Model, the artist offers an abstracted perspective of the world, synthesizing diverse elements into distilled final outputs. Echoes of broken video games, the iconic imagery of Nintendo, and the impressionistic landscapes of Monet resonate within the works. The anxieties of the “Techno Virus,” the experience of travel, and the unique energy of living in Berlin further inform and permeate the collection, creating a complex tapestry of inspiration.

Executed with a pen plotter, the works in STRIPDE further examine Wiatrek’s personal relationship with the impact of media and machines on daily life. His memories become interwoven with the remnants of generative AI images, trained on the mundane alongside the masterpieces of art history, questioning the boundaries between the ordinary and the extraordinary.