Portlock’s vision of Philadelphia is one of a city in ruins, plagued by guns. He draws inspiration from Australia, where stringent gun laws led to a significant decrease in gun-related homicides and suicides after a tragic shooting in 1996. In his art piece titled “Time After the Hunter,” Portlock depicts the city both before and after the implementation of these laws, with remnants of the old version alongside a new, more hopeful version.
Meanwhile, Natalie Hijinx, a Philadelphia artist and member of the collective Vox Populi, envisions a very different future for the city. Drawing upon her love of science fiction and Gene Roddenberry, she creates “Long Action,” a multimedia sculptural piece set in a world where decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) has taken over. In this imagined future, the AI known as the Essensees works to save humanity from itself by engineering a super fungus that feeds on gunpowder, rendering guns useless worldwide. Instead of a technological dystopia, Hijinx’s piece offers a unique perspective on the role of technology in society.
