kathi schulz ︎ ︎  

kathi schulz ︎ ︎  

My work explores concepts of reality, perception, and consciousness. I investigate the disparity between actual and virtual spheres, their entanglement, and how they are embedded in and emerge from digital technologies. Working in a variety of media such as Artificial Intelligence, VR/AR,  multimedia installation, video, painting, sound, and theory allows me to develop a more precise understanding of our surroundings, ourselves, and how perceptions differ.  I explore the interdependence between technology, body, and mind, and the various utopian/dystopian narratives provoked by this relationship. The immersive spaces I build combine the virtual and actual to create a hyperreality that allows the viewer to experience how individuals, culture, and existing sociopolitical power structures are both fragmented and homogenized by digitality.  By using my own practice of digital communication, my voice, and my body, my work represents a reclamation of female sexuality in the digital age.

My practice creates a tension between overly intimate narratives and the exploration of systematic schisms in the 21. centuries. This juxtaposition is not only inherent in the concepts of my work but also in my use of material and in the process itself. I combine materials with a fluid, painterly quality, such as fabric, plastic, and drawings with digital gadgets like cell phones and smart mirrors. To create my digital work I use a combination of complex software  (gaming engines, 3D modeling software, AI applications) and user-friendly, low-tech applications like AR filters and story features of social media platforms (Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram). Subverting the notion of sentimentality of personal storytelling, this tension suggests the collapse of subject-object, spacetime,  and actual and virtual.

My practice not only aesthetically depicts the permeability of virtual and actual realities but also the complexity of relationships and social networks, and allows the viewer to experience it. I conjure a space in which technology is not separate from but a part of us, allowing a  critical and generative perspective that unfolds new possibilities and means of perception.