In the aftermath of WWII, western culture has been largely shaped by the rise of consumerism and the proliferation of mass media. Television and film brought corporate visions of reality into homes while, at the same time, suburbanization fueled the automobile’s new prominence.
Artists like Andy Warhol and writers like J.G. Ballard reflected on these changes, suggesting that the technological advancements of the period were ushering in new and troubling relationships with death and destruction. Warhol’s Death and Disaster series used car crashes to highlight society's desensitization to violence, while Ballard’s novels, such as Crash, linked the car to darker, sexualized death drives.
Today, with the rise of generative AI, we face another technological shift. Crash echoes Warhol’s themes but focuses on derealization, questioning what happens when art, history, and technology collide crash.