Samantha Foster
nurturing the Pixel
“In the performance, I become S.A.M. - a human powered drawing robot. Using a state-of-the-art control arm equipped with MI (mechanical intelligence), audience members operate S.A.M. to draw portraits of people who are important in their lives, but that they primarily interact with online.”
-Samantha Foster
Nurturing the Pixel is an immersive installation composed of performance, prints, and pen plotter drawings that materializes the loneliness perpetuated by society’s dependence on online communication. Social isolation can increase when connections are made entirely through the internet. Covid further intensified the situation to where it has become a crisis during a global phenomenon.
The interaction between participants and S.A.M. results in an absurd moment of human connection, as well as a drawing. These drawings, imperfect evidence of those brief moments of human engagement, are then documented by a computer powered drawing robot and hand printing, exemplifying the push and pull dynamics of human relationships with digital technology.
Samantha Foster is a Chicago based interdisciplinary artist with a foundation in printmaking, pen plotter drawings, and performance. Foster received a BBA in Management from Loyola University New Orleans, completed advanced printmaking courses while an employee at Tulane University, and recently graduated with her MFA in Fine Arts at Columbia College Chicago in Spring 2022. She is the recipient of the 2021 Aiko Nakane fellowship and the 2022 Albert P. Weisman award.
