NM Paintings 2022 > Fire in the Hole

Fire in the Hole - Mainframe Warp
Fire in the Hole - Mainframe Warp
ink, acrylic, and tempera on paper
36" x 36"
February 2022

FIRE IN THE HOLE

We use personal computers almost daily now and the compactness of their powerful processors has become yet another nano technology that is too small to see with our eyes.

Since our hunter-gatherer beginnings we have relied on our sense of vision to navigate towards food and shelter, while moving away from danger.

Warnings now come from sensors and hidden cameras as refrigerated foodstuffs make their way from far off, carried in trucks and planes to our local markets.

Our currency is backed by gold that is controlled by market forces that we might read about but likewise never see.

Focused on screens we learn what is happening around the world – a world that seems to expand in population and information at the pace of our expanding universe. Everything is getting bigger outside while everything gets smaller inside as our nano technology computes data from the limits of known space.

Satellites and probes report at the edges of our atmosphere and on the edges of our galaxy. Here below science develops ‘artificial intelligence.’ Tests for its application arrive in our neighborhoods, often without any real warning or prior requests for insight.

Insight is recommended after the polls have been completed. Then we might make use of the most popular, and frequently visited experiences from the collective hindsight. That way our opinions can be better informed and in-line with the ‘prevailing winds.’

Like gulls at the beach, we can line up facing the onshore gusts or attempt to fly on our own into, or away from what is in store. But, try as we might, the weather remains outside of our control.

Hide as we might, our phones and bank accounts can find us – much of the rest of our internet existence could already have given this all away. The pit of one’s stomach makes identity theft a visceral part of our individuality. Algorithms and cameras are keeping track of us, for us.

As free and clever as we can be keeping up with our nano world, somewhere events, that we cannot imagine ourselves being connected to, have begun their countdown. “Fire in the hole” is a distant whisper in our direction that is continuously broadcast to us in our world of consecutive big bangs!