With an early background in computer vision and artificial intelligence research, Dawn Chan uses art criticism to confront the identity politics embodied in digital art. Underlying Chan’s work is the understanding that technological progress is not a purely inclusive social force. “Digital art always seemed both like a natural starting point [for me], and like a crucial yet too-often-overlooked area of contemporary art,” reflects Chan. “The work of artists using digital media will inevitably re-figure the ways we read more traditional forms of visual art, and we’re all going to have to grapple with those changes, sooner or later.” In addition, she observes that “the cultural implications of the digital age are sorely incomplete unless one begins to acknowledge the ways in which newly minted technologies interact with constructions of race, class, self, and other.” Her recent reviews respond to the art of Aki Sasamoto, Sondra Perry, John Gerrard, and Porpentine.
“I am drawn to Dawn’s writing for its ability to tether an understanding and appreciation of the art history of the field of digital art with an interest in posing unique interrogations that have the potential to push the landscape of digital arts writing forward,” explains Kathleen Forde.
Dawn Chan’s writing appears in Artforum, where she was an editor from 2007 to 2018, and the Atlantic.com, Bookforum, the New York Times, the NewYorker.com, New York Magazine, the Paris Review, the Village Voice, and Vogue.com, among other publications. A former visiting critic at RISD, MICA, and CCNY, Chan is currently a visiting scholar at NYU’s Center for Experimental Humanities.