Title of Work: Zzyzx
Date: 2025
Medium: Runway Gen-2 Artificial Intelligence text-to-video generator, original audio
Duration: 3 minute 54 seconds

This video was created using the Runway Gen-2 artificial intelligence text-to-video generator to consider the disruption and destabilization of nature and humanity caused by the excesses of free-market capitalism, the Industrial Revolution and the Digital Age, unfettered colonialism and imperialism, and asymmetrical neo-liberal policies leading to acute consolidations of power, staggering economic inequality, mass over-production and consumption, environmental degradation, and the military industrial complex. It explores the ways in which the introduction of new technologies including the internal combustion engine, the camera, the Internet, and, more recently, artificial intelligence are being employed to exert power using military and industrial equipment, electronic and digital surveillance, disinformation and propaganda, and the mediation of violence. While artificial intelligence is being touted as a panacea for all societal ills, the adverse effects of its unregulated implementation include the use of vast amounts of water and electrical power, an increase in deception by way of A.I. generated photos and videos, chatbots replacing humans in intimate relationships, and the loss of human jobs to A.I.s. The Runway Gen-2 text-to-video generator inaccurately represents text prompts and depictions of reality calling attention to the medium itself.