Bruno David Gallery is presenting Black Swan in Three Variations, a video work by New York/St. Louis–based artist Patricia Olynyk in collaboration with media artist and cinematographer Adam Hogan. This is Olynyk’s fourth exhibition with the gallery.

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, and explores perceived randomness and variability through algorithmic electroacoustic composition and granular synthesis. A garden hose featured intermittently throughout, 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.

Patricia Olynyk is an artist, writer, and educator whose work explores science and technology-related themes and the ways in which social systems and institutional structures shape our understanding of our place in the world. Her areas of research are broad and range from the affective qualities of images and immersive spaces to speculative storytelling and expanded cinema. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and festivals internationally, at Palazzo Michiel dalle Colonne, Venice, the Los Angeles International Biennial, The Brooklyn Museum, the Saitama Modern Art Museum, Japan, the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, Galeria Grafica, Tokyo, the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, New York, and Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria. Her writing has been featured in publications that include Public Journal (York University), the Routledge Companion to Biology in Art and Architecture, Technoetic Arts (Intellect Press), Leonardo Journal, and Bio/Matter/Techno Synthetics (Actar Press).

Adam Hogan is a media artist, cinematographer, and researcher. His work engages expanded cinema and experimental approaches to moving image and sound using the medium itself through production and development to explore how media technologies shape our perception and relationships to spaces and histories. His work spans traditional production, but also includes experimental collaborations with artists, choreographers, musicians and composers. His work and collaborations have been featured in numerous national and international festivals, exhibitions and collections, including Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum, Tate Modern, Berlinale, Ars Electronica, International Symposium on Electronic Art, CyFest13 & 15, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Experimental Intermedia, DOC NYC, and more. Hogan was the director of photography for What We Left Unfinished, which saw a national theatrical release in 2021. His work has also been published on streaming platforms: Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Criterion Channel, Apple Music, and others. Hogan holds a Ph.D. from University of Washington, Seattle in Digital Arts and Experimental Media and a Master of Fine Arts from Washington University in St. Louis. He is currently based out of Fayetteville, Arkansas as an Associate Professor of Art and Head of Experimental Media Arts at the University of Arkansas.