AI

I started using an AI to create imagery which mashes together images by multiple authors to produce endless variations through infinite combinations. Creating hybrid visions of chimeras, phantasms and abstractions, the AI uses a biological labelling system for it’s creative process – you can ‘edit genes’ and crossbreed, as well as view the family tree of image histories and relationships. Computation strives for biological variety.

These images are difficult to identify and label, to me they look organic – like many different lifeforms mixed together. I am interested in organisms which sit outside our usual frames of reference, or that which are difficult to scientifically label. Much of life on earth hasn’t been discovered, let alone named, and I am interested in the limits of our human understanding through our technologies.

For this residency I would like to use several different viewpoints to categorise this imagery. I will do this in several ways – I will create a new pseudo-scienfic reference system, use multiple human subjects and an AI to describe them.

A grid of images generated by an AI. These look organic and painterly, some look like they have insect body parts, fur, mouths and eyes mashed together creating formless mutants.
A screengrab of a google image search for the Hourglass Trapdoor Spider, which has a pattern on it's abdomen which looks like an ancient Mayan symbol.
^^ Artist description

Interview with Daniel Locke, resident artist

Jamie Wyld, director of videoclub & Vital Capacities talks to Daniel Locke about taking part in the residency programme.

Jamie Wyld (JW): Thanks for being part of the Vital Capacities residency programme! Can you say a little about yourself and your work, perhaps in relation to what you’re thinking about doing during the residency?

Daniel Locke (DL): Thanks for inviting me to be a part of the project Jamie! My name is Daniel Locke, I’m a graphic novelist and artist. I’m absolutely fascinated by scientists and scientific discovery, and since 2010 I’ve pursued projects that have brought me into contact with a wide range of researchers, in hugely diverse settings.

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Location: Temple Grounds

Ancient temple hall; still from footage, filmed after Chinese New Years celebration, 11th February 2019
Black and white image of a incense holder in an Chinese shrine, filled with candles, incense and ash
Shrine located at the entrance of Hubei Old Village; still from footage, filmed after Chinese New Years celebration, 11th February 2019

Introducing artist Joey Holder

Joey Holder, Semelparous, 2020. Photo: Damian Griffiths (installation view)

Joey Holder’s work raises philosophical questions of our universe and things yet unknown, regarding the future of science, medicine, biology and human-machine interactions. Working with scientific and technical experts she makes immersive, multimedia installations that explore the limits of the human and how we experience non-human, natural and technological forms.

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Introducing artist Daniel Locke

Daniel Locke, The Isolation Station, 2020

Daniel Locke is an artist and graphic novelist based in Brighton, UK. He is currently working on his second full-length graphic novel, Two Heads, a collaboration with writer Alex Frith and Neuroscientists, Uta and Chris Frith. This book will look back at the careers and discoveries of Professors Uta and Chris Frith. The book is also a survey of our understanding of how our brains work and how we know how they work. It will be published later this year by Scribner in the USA and Bloomsbury in the UK.

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Introducing artist Romily Alice Walden

Romily Alice Walden, My Body was a River, 2018 (still from film)

Romily Alice Walden is a transdisciplinary artist whose work centres a queer, disabled perspective on the fragility of the body. Their practice spans sculpture, installation, video, curation and printed matter, all of which is undertaken with a socially engaged and research-led working methodology.

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