DUTCHESS AND COLUMBIA COUNTIES — A billboard with art by James Wise of the Bard College class of ’26 was on view at 3391 US-9 in Hudson from Dec. 20, 2023, to Jan. 17, 2023.

Titled, “How Long Will We Be Driving?”, the billboard came about through a partnership with Bard Community Arts Collaborative, the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard, and Shandaken Project’s Public Arts Initiative.

Wise’s piece was chosen from projects done by students in an extended media studio course at Bard College taught by Julia Weist.

Her students made 2D projects that were reviewed by Shandaken, and 3D projects that were reviewed by the Village of Red Hook’s chair for the Public Spaces Initiative Committee.

The 3D works were installed at Richard Abraham’s Memorial Park in Red Hook. The pieces ranged from interactive sculptures to large-format photographic prints to sculptures of wood and metal. This exhibit was not open to the public; it was a pilot program with the idea of future collaborations in mind.

Student Elena Schneider ’27 said, “Being able to make something to be displayed in the landscape where we live pushed me to create something I really care about and am proud of.”

Of the class, Weist said, “If you can create art that affects a viewer, moves a viewer in the parking lot of a grocery store, which is where our billboard project is located, you’ve succeeded profoundly as an artist.”

Wise’s piece was selected for the billboard outside of Hudson by Shandaken as part of its Public Art Initiative 14x48, which has exhibited “new work by contemporary artists across New York State since 2021.”

The title refers to the increasing reliance of society on artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential loss of human independence with such things as self-driving cars, Wise has explained; it questions the very use of cars in the face of global warming. The figure at the center of the work, an avatar created with AI, reminds viewers that AI is a field dominated by white males.

Explaining his approach to the work, Wise said: “My main concern was in conveying my concept as clearly as possible. I wanted the billboard to blend in, so I researched local insurance billboards for a base.” He added: “After layering and collaging the AI images I’d generated from various local insurance-themed prompts, I ended up landing on the final product. I was always cautious to keep my work as close to the source material as possible, while still subtly distinct under closer inspection.” Wise created the billboard by layering more than 50 AI generated images.

Photo courtesy Bard College

Bard College students work on installing their sculptures at Richard Abraham’s Memorial Park in Red Hook. The installation was part of a pilot program with the village of Red Hook’s Public Spaces Initiative Committee.