Black swan in three variations, a video work by New York/St. Louis–based artist Patricia Olynyk in collaboration with media artist and cinematographer Adam Hogan. Drawing from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s timely and relevant book from his Incerto Series, Antifragile, and the notion that individuals can gain from the impact of highly improbable events, this triptych and evocative score offer three meditations on a selection of black swan events, including 911 and its aftermath, the 2008 Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and collapse of the global financial market, the sinking of the Titanic, and the recent rise of ChatGPT.

The score draws from an array of speeches by political figures, AI experts, and members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, and explores perceived randomness and variability through algorithmic electroacoustic composition and granular synthesis. A garden hose featured intermittently throughout, which gradually fills a large vessel with water where the black swan chaos unfolds is a nod to Brecht’s alienation effect, or “verfremdungseffekt". This unconventional chronometer marks the duration of the work, migrating the viewer between various scenarios that gradually evolve, and one that unremittingly keeps time.

Patricia Olynyk is an artist, writer, and educator whose work explores science and technology- related themes and the ways in which social systems and institutional structures shape our understanding of our place in the world. Her areas of research are broad and range from the affective qualities of images and immersive spaces to speculative storytelling and expanded cinema. Adam Hogan is a media artist, cinematographer, and researcher. His work engages expanded cinema and experimental approaches to moving image and sound using the medium itself through production and development to explore how media technologies shape our perception and relationships to spaces and histories.