20th issue of Manual on technologies

By advocating for the integration of AI in art-making, we are not merely keeping up with technological trends—we are continuing a centuries-old tradition of innovation in art. This is a journey of collaboration between human emotion and computational power, one that promises to redefine our understanding of what art can be in this digital age.

–ChatGPT-4, introduction

Manual 20 (Technologies) considers the history and future of art and technology by examining artworks that combine manual techniques and handiwork with non-human productive agents associated with industry or technology. Manual 20 complements the exhibition Process Work: Intersections of Photography and Print ca. 1825 to Today, on view at the RISD Museum February 1–July 20, 2025. Sarah Mirseyedi, the curator of that exhibition, is this issue’s guest editor.

From the Files
–Elizabeth A. Williams calculates how Gorham replicated the Parthenon Frieze

Double Takes
–Wendy Bellion and Erik Gould reflect on a physiognotrace profile portrait of C. A. Rodney
–Jan Howard and Colin Channer gaze on a Phoebe Boswell drawing and remind us that What You’ve Got to Remember Is What You’re Looking at Is Also You (after Baldwin)

Artist on Art
–Jolie Ngo on Flatpack Vessel in Space Blanket: .Gcode is my love language

Portfolio
–An assortment of tools, gadgets, and technologies

Object Lessons
–Gerry Beegan processes reproduction in Christiane Baumgartner’s Trails I and II
–Sarah Mirseyedi considers a strip of lace, Henry Fox Talbot, and the mechanization of labor in Victorian Britain

How Tos
–Wai Yee Chiong activates a shikake-e (trick picture)
–Polly Spenner falls in love with an industrial loom
–Paula Gaetano Adi emancipates a robot

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