I'm inspired as much by the dizzying potential of Artificial Intelligence as I am by its shortcomings. In this ongoing body of work, Computers Can't Jump, AI is my creative collaborator and playmate; its relentless evolution and occasional misfires grant me a free pass to experiment and provoke. To depart from the rigour and rules of photographic convention, with its darkrooms and copyright clauses, and to take a trip into the realm of conceptual mischief.
Titles provide the jumping-off point – they emerge out of mostly machine-generated phrases, patterns of words and ideas that are equal parts absurd and enticing. Shepherdess Mess On Incline Bench Press. Subdued Conversation Salad. 1 Fly, Atmosphere In-built. Nonsense, yes – but evocative nonetheless. I play with these wry poetic prompts, combining my own photographs with AI-generated or found imagery to create unexpected visual compositions. The algorithm offers me instant access to an unbridled, unconscious mind. What emerges is a surreal fever dream for a super-online world, born out of the murky waters that separate machine learning from magical thinking.
These compositions, a Frankenstein of forms, textures, colours and cues, are eerie and enticing, compelling and uncanny. Almost as soon as recognisable features and slippery surfaces have invited the eye in, a jolt of recognition pushes it back. Destabilised, the viewer takes a misstep into the uncanny valley – but it's in the work they do to right themselves that the meaning-making occurs. Through this work, I hope to gently guide viewers down new avenues of artistic expression and critical inquiry - a cheeky nudge to the ribs of traditional image-making, inviting us all to peek behind the curtain of what's possible when we let the machines join the creative mosh pit.
The mechanics of machine-generated instability are echoed in my experiments with form. For me, lenticular prints, with their ability to change as they're viewed from different angles, offer an intriguing parallel to the iterative diffusion model of AI image generation. Each shift in a lenticular print's view mirrors AI's stepwise refinement, gradually revealing a fuller, transformed picture. These prints offer a tangible way to experience the step-by-step process of AI image generation, inviting viewers to engage physically with the work.
In my enthusiastic adoption of AI as instrumental to art-making, I find permission to relinquish some control. My process challenges photographic traditions, and as the smoke dissipates, I begin to trace the outline of a new artistic freedom - one that offers the thrilling possibility of experimentation without end.
