New Religion Update 2.0
Video, 2025
About the artwork
What happens if we reboot faith?
At the center of the composition is a cross, with a figure made of computer cursors crucified upon it, while error windows and a new icon — “New_Religion_v2.0” — appear in the sky.
This isn’t just a rethinking of religion, but its update for the digital age, where the sacred and the virtual have merged, and miracles have been replaced by bugs and algorithms.
Faith is no longer outside of time — now it’s part of the operating system, waiting for its next restart.
Sound design
Audio explanation
Listen to don't Buy discuss this work.
Don’t Buy is a visual artist who creates digital paintings, videos, and GIFs using artificial intelligence and mixed media. Embracing a moniker that itself subverts consumerist language, he approaches art-making with a hacker’s spirit – repurposing AI technology to explore the beauty of errors and the aesthetics of early digital culture. In his work, glitchy abstractions and retro graphics converge to address themes of identity and imperfection in the online era. “When a cold, mechanical machine makes a mistake, it becomes a little more human,” Don’t Buy notes, reflecting his view that technological faults can reveal human qualities. This philosophy underscores much of his art, which often highlights the serendipity of algorithmic mistakes and the nostalgia of outdated interfaces.
A participant in Fellowship’s AI art program, Don’t Buy has presented projects that encapsulate his ethos. Notably, his series 404: SELF NOT FOUND (2024) is an assemblage of AI-generated imagery probing our entanglement with digital identities and the nature of error. Through a mix of dark humor and experimental technique, he transforms mundane clicks and computer glitches into artistic meditation.