Black Swan in Three Variations: Patricia Olynyk in Collaboration with Adam Hogan

Bruno David Gallery presents Black Swan in Three Variations, a video work by artist Patricia Olynyk in collaboration with media artist and cinematographer Adam Hogan.

Drawing from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s timely and relevant book from his Incerto Series, Antifragile, and the notion that individuals can gain from the impact of highly improbable events, this triptych and evocative score offer three meditations on a selection of black swan events, including 911 and its aftermath, the 2008 Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and collapse of the global financial market, the sinking of the Titanic and the recent rise of ChatGPT.

The score draws from an array of speeches by political figures, AI experts and members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, exploring perceived randomness and variability through algorithmic electroacoustic composition and granular synthesis.

A garden hose featured intermittently throughout the piece, which gradually fills a large vessel with water where the black swan chaos unfolds, is a nod to Brecht’s alienation effect, or verfremdungseffekt. This unconventional chronometer marks the duration of the work, migrating the viewer between various scenarios that gradually evolve – and one that unremittingly keeps time.