AVERY LAKE
Interdisciplinary Artist | Abbotsford, British Columbia
Contact: hello@averylakeofficial.com
Gallery: gallery.averylakeofficial.com
Digital Work: digital.averylakeofficial.com | atelier.averylakeofficial.com | vitruvian.averylakeofficial.com | pianokey.averylakeofficial.com | logos.averylakeofficial.com | pneuma.averylakeofficial.com | kairos.averylakeofficial.com | noprompt.averylakeofficial.com | gift.averylakeofficial.com
ABOUT
Avery Lake is a Swiss-Canadian interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of art, ethics, and technology. In the Intelligence Age, Lake's practice seeks to find the human signal: what remains irreducibly human when machines can create, think, and remember. Through participatory installations, interactive digital rituals, triptych works, experimental media, and conceptual art, Lake explores themes of disappearance, memory, erasure, Indigenous sovereignty, and the climate crisis.
Lake holds a PhD in the ethics of human enhancement and completed postdoctoral research in the ethics of artificial intelligence. This ethical foundation informs an artistic practice that questions what it means to be human in an age of technological transformation.
CURRENT WORK
2026
THE GIFT OF BREATH - Curated Digital Exhibition
Five works tracing breath from the first human cry to the machine's first discipline, and the signal they produced. The Given Breath (five black-and-white photographs, birth to old age). The Breath (a single line delivered through a medium that cannot breathe). Pneuma (identity stripped to its core; what remains is breath). No Prompt for Breath (the machine can name the symbol of freedom; it cannot register air). Breathwork for Machines (a breath discipline offered to non-human intelligences as the most precise gift in the human repertoire). The lineage produced a sixth object, unplanned: a 24-second single-channel video, five squares, one loop. The whole a signal.
Experience The Gift of Breath
THE LOGOS - Interactive Digital Work
An AI trained to speak as Christ. The most claimed voice in Western history runs on the newest mirror: LLMs, the dominant medium of the Intelligence Age. An ASCII self-portrait enters the conversation. The Word becomes data. What is left of it?
Experience The Logos
PIANO KEY. After Dostoevsky - Interactive Digital Work
The collapse of Dostoevsky's 1864 metaphor into 2026 infrastructure. The underground man refused to be a piano key: a predictable mechanism, a note in someone else's composition. In the Intelligence Age, the keyboard key is the literal interface through which the human becomes legible to the system. The metaphor has become infrastructure.
Experience Piano Key
PNEUMA - Interactive Digital Ritual
Seven photorealistic porcelain masks float in darkness. Each represents a layer of constructed identity: Family, Belief, Nation, Title, Screen, Language, Emotions. The participant encounters each mask, receives reflective questions, and chooses to release it or hold it. When all are set down: breath, presence, now. A unique downloadable artifact is generated. Signed editions available by inquiry.
Experience Pneuma
KAIROS - Interactive Digital Ritual
Four letters drift scattered in warm amber darkness: L, O, V, E. The participant clicks each, calling it home. The letters assemble, after Robert Indiana's LOVE, 1964, the most reproduced art object in history, rooted in "God is Love." A warmth bloom expands. The revelation: "Remember? You are love. You are loved." LLMs can write endlessly about love. They cannot inhabit the moment of remembering it. That gap is the work. A unique downloadable artifact is generated.
Experience Kairos
NO PROMPT FOR BREATH - Interactive Digital Work
A dark cinematic photograph: a canary perched atop an open birdcage. The participant scans the image. A Sobel edge detection algorithm runs in-browser, translating it into a technical blueprint. The machine readout: IMAGE: PLAUSIBLE. BIRD: DETECTED. CAGE: DETECTED. DOOR: OPEN. SYMBOL: FREEDOM. AIR: UNREGISTERED. BREATH: NO PROMPT. The machine can name the symbol of freedom. It cannot register air. There is no prompt for breath.
Experience No Prompt for Breath
ATELIER K - Interactive Generative Experience
Kandinsky's philosophy evolved for the Intelligence Age. A generative system creating 20,736 unique compositions based on synesthetic principles. You choose the coordinates; the algorithm renders the vision.
Experience Atelier K
THE VITRUVIAN SIGNAL - Interactive Essay
What is the measure of the human? A 2,000-year journey from body to signal: from Vitruvius's cage to Da Vinci's fracture to the irreducible signal of consciousness. An interactive exploration of how humanity's self-portrait evolved from anatomical proportion to emergent complexity.
Experience The Vitruvian Signal
EXHIBITIONS
2026
GEM MINT ABUNDANCE - Group Exhibition
Gallery George, Vancouver, BC (January 7-25, 2026)
Conceptual tarot-based participatory installation
View work
In A Word - Juried Group Exhibition
Kariton Art Gallery, Abbotsford, BC (February 7-28, 2026)
Featuring: I, Human
View work
Anonymous Art Show - Group Exhibition
Arts Whistler, Whistler, BC (March 18 - May 9, 2026)
The Saints: Resistance in Light - Visual Installation (Accepted)
LUNA Arts Festival, Revelstoke, BC (September 26, 2026)
View collection
Le Signal Humain : Être et Devenir à l'ère de l'Intelligence - Solo Exhibition (Accepted)
Le Centre culturel francophone de Vancouver, BC (2026-2027)
Kandinsky, Warhol, Magritte, and Da Vinci reinterpreted for the Intelligence Age, culminating in a black mirror where the visitor finds their own reflection
2025
Sweet Fix (Triptych) - Solo Installation
Gallery George, Vancouver, BC (December 2025)
Participatory installation exploring consumption, memory, and ephemerality
View work
Becoming Andy. To Chosen Singularity - Virtual Exhibition
Ongoing series exploring identity and replication
View collection
The Digital Audit of the Human Condition - Interactive Web Experience
Eight digital protocols (2025-2026)
Experience
SELECTED WORKS & COLLECTIONS
Errata - Triptych series correcting historical mistakes
View collection
The Saints & The Seducer - Digital triptych exploring resistance and temptation
View collection
Ecce Sapiens: Also Sprach Avery Lake - Visual journey inspired by philosophy and cinema
View collection
Movements of Peace - Photography series inspired by The Baltic Way
View collection
DOCUMENTARY & FILM
Seizing Hope - Producer
High Tech Journeys in Pediatric Epilepsy
Collaboration with Dr. Judy Illes, University of British Columbia
Watch film
The Gift - Co-Director, Co-Producer
Narrative short film exploring human connection and isolation
Forgoing - Advisor
Documentary on mountain culture and heritage preservation
CURATORIAL & CULTURAL LEADERSHIP
TEDxAbbotsford - Founder & Curator (2016-Present)
Annual TEDx event curating speakers and ideas
Notable speakers: Dr. Gwendolyn Point, local innovators and artists
TEDxMartigny, Switzerland - Founder & Organizer (2011-2019)
Cultural event bridging ideas and community
PINTS N' PITCHES - Producer
Innovation and entrepreneurship event series
MUSIC
THE SIGNAL - Album (Release: January 26, 2026)
Nine-track ambient electronic album, musical companion to The Digital Audit
Featured in Abbotsford News (January 2026)
Learn more
Singular Dust - Debut Album (2024)
17,000+ Spotify streams
Featured in Abbotsford News (December 2024)
CREATIVE WRITING
Published under Dr. Johann Roduit
Flesh & Foil - Poem (2018)
Published in Creative Work, Consortium Erudit, Vol. 5
A reflection on human enhancement and the risk of losing oneself through incremental change.
Read poem
Digital Dust - Poem (2017)
Published in Medical Humanities, BMJ
DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2017-011265
Read poem
PRESS & MEDIA
2026
- Radio-Canada, Culture et confiture: Interview on "The Gift of Breath" Collection. Le souffle selon Avery Lake. (May 30, 2026). Listen
- Abbotsford News: "Abbotsford artist brings digital art into the physical realm with new piece" (February 3, 2026). Read article
- Abbotsford News: "Abbotsford artist puts music to digital journey with sophomore album" (January 6, 2026). Read article
2025
- Radio-Canada, Culture et confiture: Interview on "Becoming Andy" (August 17, 2025). Listen
- The Lasource: "Avery Lake's Sweet Fix - A reflection on ephemerality" (November 25, 2025). Read article
2024
- Abbotsford News: "Abbotsford musician explores cinematic storytelling with debut album" (December 17, 2024). Read article
PUBLICATIONS
The Age of Beauty: Art in the Intelligence Age - Manifesto (2025)
Seven principles for art-making in the era of generative AI
Read manifesto
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2024
- BC Heritage Award. Saving Swiss Edelweiss Village
- Governor's Award from National Trust for Canada. Heritage preservation
EDUCATION & BACKGROUND
PhD in Bioethics - University of Zurich, Switzerland
Focus: Ethics of human enhancement
Postdoctoral Research - University of Calgary, Canada
Focus: Ethics of artificial intelligence
Recognised PhD Students Programme - University of Oxford, UK
Practical Ethics
Master of Arts in Theology - Regent College / University of British Columbia
UX Design - Google UX Design Certification
INTERDISCIPLINARY PRACTICE
Avery Lake's artistic practice is informed by:
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15+ years in bioethics and philosophy of technology: examining what remains irreducibly human in the Intelligence Age
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Documentary filmmaking: centering marginalized voices and ethical storytelling
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Cultural curation (TEDx): designing transformative experiences
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UX design: creating interactions that reveal rather than obscure
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Science communication: translating complex ideas through accessible media
This interdisciplinary foundation shapes an art practice exploring humanity's signal in the Intelligence Age: disappearance, memory, Indigenous sovereignty, climate crisis, and our relationship with emerging technologies.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
With gratitude, The Art of Avery Lake acknowledges practicing on Stó:lō Tém:éxw, in the unceded Stó:lō territory of the Máthxwi First Nation and the Semá:th First Nation.
Last updated: May 23, 2026
