specimens

from left to right
specimen_03a, specimen_02c, specimen_01d
2024
Océ prints, OSB panel, wheatpaste

these specimens oscillate between low and high resolutions simultaneously, their sections filtered through AI-upscaling programs to produce a fleshy membrane where compressed pixels once were. This collection of pixelation and image-flesh were then reconstructed onto repurposed wood panels – the data of the old image now existing on the same plane as their artificial replacements. These fibers blur the lines of the organized pixel matrices that make up a digital image, and reach towards a new organism. These digital image ‘specimens’ are part of a larger body of experimentation with continuous image compression and upscale, examining the ways in which AI can be ‘glitched’ by providing excessively textural or compressed images. Feigning uniform definition, these experiments diverge from tech’s exponential pursuit towards higher fidelity, to find an alternative. The original images, since lost in layers of abstraction and processing, contain a sentimentality made new in this repurposed form. Now, where do I end, and the machine begin?