Illinois Tech students and faculty are welcome to attend an award-winning exhibition at the Wrightwood 659 museum at 659 W Wrightwood Ave. in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Difference Machines: Technology and Identity in Contemporary Art sheds light on the struggle between digital dominance and personal identity through the lens of contemporary art. 

The exhibit opens Friday, October 13, 2023, and will be on view through Saturday, December 16, 2023. Organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) in Buffalo, New York, the award-winning exhibition is making its final stop in Chicago after a four-city national tour.

The exhibition is presented by Alphawood Exhibitions. Free student tours are available.

Difference Machines is co-curated by Tina Rivers Ryan, Ph.D., curator of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and Paul Vanouse, professor at the University at Buffalo. The exhibition earned the 2022 Curatorial Award for Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC), making it the first major survey of art and technology to be acknowledged by the AAMC. 

“In light of the sudden explosion of interest in digital art, we hope this exhibition will help raise  awareness of its longer history,” explains Curator Tina Rivers Ryan. “These artworks demonstrate that  artists who work with digital technologies have long considered the complex relationship between  technology and difference. Unfortunately, as is true across contemporary art, these artists often have  not been valued beyond their communities, due to the systemic biases of institutions including art  museums and galleries.”