Stellar Projects

Art and the Algorithm

Pioneering artist Adia Wahid discussed gender politics, art and the role of technology at Stellar’s exclusive event for International Women’s Day on the 5th of March 2020.

Held at the Church House in Westminster, the event was curated to discuss the value of art as a force for cultural reflection and the value of female artists as wider social and political commentators.

In line with International Women’s Day, the conversation took a critical look at patriarchal society’s expectation that female artists produce inherently feminine’ work and comment solely on gender politics. Working to challenge this notion, Adia encouraged female artists to discuss other prominent issues of the day – such as the growing role of technology in our daily lives.

Adia Wahid graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with an Economics Degree before pursuing a career as an artist. Having completed her BA at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, Adia went on to train at the Royal College of Art where she received her MA. Her training in both economics and arts has inspired her to create a collection in which the two coexist.

Stellar International Art Foundation chose Wahid’s work because of the unique way it comments on the current status of humankind’s day to day dependence on smartphones and computers, and the algorithms which power them. Inspired by ancient systems of coding and writing, such as cuneiform tablets, Wahid seeks to highlight the similarities between past and present methods of communication and to explore how algorithms have been used throughout history to support systems of knowledge transfer.

At the event, Adia encouraged the audience to understand the importance and relevance of algorithms in our lives but also the risk that this poses to the creative industries.

This event was curated as part of Stellar’s longstanding ambition to champion diasporic female artists with a strong social relevance and challenge notions of male artistic supremacy. Founded in 2008, the Foundation is designed to provide cultural insight into the ideological standpoints of artists with different experiences and understandings of the world.