Un/familiar Terrain{s}

v1.0 by: Michael Takeo Magruder, 2024

An exhibition of unique landscapes generated from fleeting personal experiences as reimagined through a reciprocal dialogue between artist and AI.

Exhibition Documentation:

About the Project:

Un/familiar Terrain{s} is a visual art exhibition that has been created through a sophisticated partnership between artist and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This creative 'collaboration' transforms personal footage captured on the first generation of AI-enabled smartphones into three otherworldly installations, each rooted in specific places of renowned natural beauty.

In the works, every single frame of the source material is revised, reworked, and rebuilt into digital prints and algorithmic videos which recast these captured moments as uncanny encounters. In this way, like painters, photographers, and cinematographers who have harnessed technology to transform terrains into expressive landscapes, the invisible work of the AI allows people to experience more than ever was, expanding both time and space. Un/familiar Terrain{s} infuses these leading-edge AI systems with traditional artistic practices to retrofit the world anew and, in doing so, pushes visitors to explore the organic nature of their own memories and the unsettling notions of automatic processing, misattribution, and reconstruction.

Artworks:

Reconstructed Landscape{s} – Fisherman's Trail

Reconstructed Landscape{s} – Hidcote Bartrim

Reconstructed Landscape{s} – Great Falls

In Dialogue with:

Dr Devon Abts [ curation ] . Dr Michelle Fletcher [ academic consultation ]

With Thanks to:

Madeline Drewes [ Luce Center for Arts & Religion: exhibition production ] . Dr Aaron Rosen [ artwork consultation ] . Rev Edward Thornley [ hospitality ] . Emma Puente [ installation support ]

Supported by:

Un/familiar Terrain{s} v1.0 was commissioned and produced by The Henry Luce III Center for the Arts & Religion, Washington DC for its Dadian Gallery.