Visibility, authorship, and freedom in digital culture

Guests: Patrick Amadon and Empress Trash

Hosted by Farrah Carbonell

Guest moderated by Justin Gilanyi

Duration: 60 minutes

Five years after the digital-art boom of 2021, artists have more ways than ever to create, distribute, and sell their work. But greater access has not necessarily produced greater freedom or security. Platforms control visibility, markets reward certain relationships, institutions determine what can be shown, and AI has introduced new questions about ownership and control.

Episode 8 of ART VOICES brings together Patrick Amadon and Empress Trash, two artists who have built careers without waiting for traditional permission. Amadon’s code-based and glitch practice uses digital systems as both material and adversary, confronting censorship, surveillance, anonymity, and political control. Empress Trash works across glitch, AI, crypto art, and virtual environments while building an independent career rooted in self-authorship, community, radical expression, and economic self-reliance.

Guest moderated by Justin Gilanyi, the conversation asks what artistic freedom actually costs. Did blockchain change the relationship between artists and collectors, or reproduce familiar hierarchies under new names? When does community become gatekeeping? Is visibility the same as support? And what allows an artist to continue when the market, platform, or institution does not respond?