Created during the first stages of lockdown, this work reflects on the week of the US election in November 2020 – framing it as an information “organism” through use of machine learning (Stylegan2, Neural Radiance Fields) and a timelapse data set taken from his most frequented news websites. Covid – and lockdown – introduced heightened awareness of physical proximity, vulnerability, and fear of “contagion”, and it was within these circumstances that the tentacular reach of these distant political events, through the various media channels, started to assume a presence within everyday consciousness.
The artist reflects on these circumstances by speculating on what forms this presence may appear as – what is the anatomy of this moment?
Through use of medical imaging software (OsiriX), and latent-space extrapolations he builds volumetric data structures. These are “defibrillated” with pulses of density through the latent forms, revealing an infovasculature. Seemingly unrelated parts of the volume are revealed to be in connection with the totality of the rest, in rhizomatic fashion.
The coda to the film was created in 2022, after the subsequent January 6th riots in Washington DC. The artist created a dataset based on on the ground footage shot by Kent Nishimura of the LA Times. From this on the ground perspective, the artist explores the moment as a field of intensities and potentials, leaving open the question as to where things go from here.
These visualisations consider the entangled nature of these fraught moments of time, and in doing so defies the dichotomies portrayed through the media coverage of the event – red / blue, us / them, US / The Rest, now / the future.
Exhibitions
“Not Yet But Soon” curated by loop[Delirium] – Hypha Studios, Sugar House Island, November 2024
“TRANSFORM-BASE AI and Tech conference” – Kings Palace, London, November 2023
“Mythotechnesis” – Goldsmiths University, London, December 2022
