"Digital Witness"
Art Review
·
Winter 2025

Since the film industry drives Los Angeles, one might expect this show – of over 150 pieces of art, design, commercial film and software demonstrating the impact that digital manipulation tools have had on culture over the past 40 years – to force-feed its audience a sizzle-reel of cgi’s greatest hits. While digitally enhanced commercial film does feature in Digital Witness, in the form of looped clips on hanging screens threaded through the exhibition, its inclusion doesn’t seem to pander to the main sponsor (Adobe), the audience or a LACMA board member in "the industry." Nevertheless, the logic behind what did make the cut here is often unclear. Why, for example, is a clip of Life of Pi’s wonky animated tiger (2012) on loop and not one from the more technically significant Avatar (2009) or 1995’s groundbreaking Toy Story? . . .

Cat Kron

Cat Kron is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in Artforum, Artillery, Art Review, Contemporary Art Review LA, Cultured, FRIEZE, and Momus, among others.

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