Thursday, March 5, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Now Instant Image Hall, Los Angeles
East of Borneo joins Now Instant to celebrate the publication of All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. The evening will feature a screening of Charmaine Poh’s in the shadow of the cosmic, followed by a discussion with Daniela Lieja Quintanar, Talia Heiman, and Kira Xonorika. The publication All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2026) accompanies the research, exhibition, screening, and performance program presented at the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) from September 12, 2024 - February 23, 2025 as part of the Getty's PST ART: Art & Science Collide. Rooted in indigenous belief systems and feminist, queer, and decolonial thought, All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace addressed one of the most pressing issues of our time—the impact of artificial intelligence—by exploring ancestral alternatives for its future. Edited by Daniela Lieja Quintanar with Talia Heiman, the publication includes text contributions by Nora Al-Badri, Minne Atairu, Back to Back Theatre, Stephanie Dinkins, Annie Dorsen, Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, Interspecifics, Kite with Scott Benesiinaabandan and Jason Edward Lewis, Charmaine Poh, João Ribas, Sarah Rosalena, and Kira Xonorika, and documentation of performances and screenings by Arca, Nao Bustamante, rafa esparza, MUXX, and Manthia Diawara. The publication marks the culmination of a multi-year research, exhibition, performance, and publication project. João Ribas, Steven D. Lavine Executive Director of REDCAT and Vice President for Cultural Partnerships was director of the project. The exhibition was curated by Daniela Lieja Quintanar with Talia Heiman. The performance program was organized by Edgar Miramontes, Katy Dammers, Daniela Lieja Quintanar, and Talia Heiman. The publication was made possible with the guidance of Adriana Widdoes and the East of Borneo team. The book design is by Ella Gold. in the shadow of the cosmic Charmaine Poh 2023, 30m in the shadow of the cosmic is a performance-lecture exploring the multiplicity of the avatar. Expanding THE YOUNG BODY UNIVERSE series, the character E-Ching is placed in conversation with vocal clones, anime characters, 3D influencers, and other entities in a vast digital constellation. The performance-lecture traces a technological lineage from the East Asian economic miracle of the 1980s and '90s and the emergence of techno-orientalism, positing that the digital image of the East Asian femme body was borne at a confluence of these historical flows. Pertinent to the work is the recursive logic of Daoism, in which image, self and cosmology reverberate in endless loops. Combining video, live performance and sound, in the shadow of the cosmic is a call to re-open questions of being and becoming. in the shadow of the cosmic was presented as a performance in conjunction with the exhibition Proof of Personhood: Identity & Authenticity in the Face of AI at Singapore Art Museum. At REDCAT the video was presented as part of the exhibition All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. HD Video (color, sound), 30:33 min, Motion graphics: Jawn Chan, Audio generation: Jawn Chan, Ashley Hi, Chatbot customization: Ashley Hi, 3D animation: Brandon Tay, Movement artists: Sonia Kwek, Chloe Chotrani, Music: “Mutualism” by Anise