Verify You're Human : Group show by College of Fine Arts, University of Sharjah, curated by Tor Seidel & Eman Alhashemi

The question of whether we truly understand the world around us is an intriguing one. With the dawn of newly developed technologies, do we have a deeper understanding of our surroundings, or have we stopped listening, observing, and analyzing? Do we remember a plant by simply looking it up on Google Lens, or do we truly remember it only through direct interaction with it?

 

When technology begins to tell us which road to take, what floor we’re on, the temperature, the time, when to eat, or even the quality of our sleep—this list is endless—what is left for us to comprehend as part of living? We are constantly competing for our attention with distractions, notifications, and a compulsion to go online every few minutes. As our smartphones become extensions of ourselves, the distinction between human and machine starts to blur. Tasks that once required human input are increasingly automated, raising the question: What happens to the time we’re gaining from this automation?

 

As Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger argue in Re-engineering Humanity, “For what matters to us, ultimately, is not if or how machines can be built to imitate or mimic humans. Rather, we are interested in the techno-social engineering of human beings. A determination that a human is indistinguishable from a machine allows us to reasonably infer that something meaningful has been lost because of the engineered environment.”

 

This exhibition explores the evolving human relationships with modern technologies through themes of interaction, resistance, connection, and, ultimately, a deeply humanistic approach. From artworks that connect us to material and making, to those that respond to our movements by observing them, this compilation of works by CFAD faculty delves into what it means to be human in a technology-dependent world.