REVIEW: Fights! by Scott McClanahan

A few weeks ago, a friend and I visited the New Museum to see the exhibit New Humans: Memories of the Future. Prosthetics performing uncanny movements, futurist paintings, AI-generated video art, and other multi-media work filled three entire floors of the controversially remodelled building. The show addresses technological existentialism, a theme which oversaturates recent artwork, writing, and popular media we see. The curators pose the question: what does it mean to be human? I left feeling uneasy about the show’s portrayal of humanity, which emphasizes disfigurement in a post-human age where brainrot, chatbots, and technology have undermined and overhauled the creativity and intimacy I consider most important to my sense of humanity.