Dot Gov: CMU School of Art Senior Exhibition

"The threshold to the future has been hijacked. Bullies, bad language, and bellicose antics have set it on fire and outfitted it with a small film crew to capture everyone who dares to run through it. The noble feats of the willing are then broadcast live, in a non-narrative reality show for all to watch.

Try to recall that once-glittery future, when a networked commons democratized access and made way for many silenced voices. That promise, too, was hijacked, or perhaps handed over—and then weaponized—to weaken democracy itself. Now get offline: there are books to read.

As you consider the efforts within this modest catalog, know that this threshold is real, and that the present is tense for those who aspire to transform it. But also leave space for levity, empathy, and the abstract. Yes, the promise of the butterfly is dead, and in its place a whipworm persists, infects, and multiplies. The body politic is a host to horrors. Some say the cycle will last only four years, others say eight; a handful insist it will be longer. Either way, we clearly have work to do to survive it.

In this moment, is it fair to look into the void? Can we shop, browse, like, or swipe left any longer? Should we break plates or throw rocks? Did we usher in this darkness, or have these worms been spreading through us all along? Never mind. Quick—focus—your debt is accruing! There are jobs to gain, memes to post, relationships to record. Hey, did anyone read about the very good pope and the virtuous Federal Bureau of Investigation?

Stop scrolling, and look up.

Tomorrow is imminent, and in this simple truth there is a light. The end of complacency marks the starting line for action, for belief in oneself and others, for the potential of transformation. So we begin here, branded in fire, a generation engaging the future with eyes wider and minds wiser than decades have seen. Things fall apart, and from these pieces we rebuild. This is a cycle; the end of one era and the start of another. To those in these rooms, on these walls and screens, and in these spaces: you shoulder the burden and reap the benefit from this rebuilding. You are a turning point, and everyone is watching. "

- Charlie White, Regina and Marlin Miller Professor, Head of the School of Art 

Co-organized by the School of Art