With each headline, article, and report I come across about the enduring nature of plastic — in our oceans, in our bodies — I recall a visceral childhood memory: the oddly serious Plastics Make It Possible advertisements that promoted the amazing abilities of synthetic materials and regularly disrupted my Saturday morning cartoons.

As we reckon with the consequences of plastic, we might also consider the long-term impact of other technologies. How might new innovations shape our world? How might they shape us? “Plasticity” is a term that describes the ability to be molded and permanently changed by external forces. It’s where plastic gets its name, and it’s also a quality used to describe the Large Language Models that power Generative AI tools. Just as plastic has seeped into every corner of our environment, artificial intelligence is becoming woven into the fabric of our lives — its effects accumulating in ways we may not yet fully understand.

Plasticity includes a loose recreation of my childhood living room, lush with synthetic materials, plastic propaganda, and ‘90s nostalgia. In the west wing of the gallery, screens display a mixture of archival footage, stock imagery, and AI-generated video. As you watch, see if you can distinguish what was captured by a camera and what was conjured by an algorithm. Where does one end and the other begin?