Artwork title : I KNOW THIS PLACE

I KNOW THIS PLACE is an exploration of missing information. I have crafted a piece that uses photographs, soundscapes and AI-generated moving imagery to evoke these unsettling states that have lurked in my mind throughout my life and continue to haunt me.

The visual aspect of this piece, predominately created with digital photography, is shrouded in shadows, intended to be exhibited in a dark space so viewers can fully perceive the spectrum of darkness and question their perception. There is a narrative that ties the piece together but it  plays on a loop, inviting viewers to wander in and disorient themselves until they decide if they are too uncomfortable to stay.

The sound design was crafted using all organic instruments which have been manipulated until they have become unsettling and unrecognizable. All of the dialogue comes from “dead” languages, to further manipulate a feeling of foreign disconnect, yet familiarity, akin to a dream that resonates lifelike but, upon further inspection, bizarre and horrifying.

We use dream-logic to connect two ideas that are nothing like one another, but how does a computer dream? Using AI-generative technology prompted by themes of "fear" and "dread,” the machine projects its fears into the darkness between the images it was fed. As a commercial photographer, I have also become increasingly aware of my own fear regarding the rise of AI and its growing influence in the creative world. 

Confronting the unknown is what fueled the creation of this piece. AI, as much as I fear it, also represents a new frontier for creativity, one that can be shaped by human will and imagination, just as our subconscious minds shape the shadows we fear.

This work is about the acceptance of fear as an inescapable part of the human experience. Fear  must be acknowledged and respected.