Colonial Modern 2025

Colonial Modern is a series of images created by collaging photographs taken over the last few years, using AI prompts to alter the scenes and photo-editing software to process and work against the randomness I found using the AI software. In the piece exhibited here, Ode to Romance, I appreciate the partial abandonment of a consistent surface. This approach suggests a deliquescence of the subject, where various elements dissolve into each other—a man’s coat resembles cowhide, his legs transform into grass, and so forth. This is not to suggest a connection to country; quite the opposite, and more akin to waking in fright. I’m unlikely to add to this series; it was an experiment. Whilst it interested me, I enjoy the conceptual play of the title: AI software is a colonising force that aggregates information, often without context, which, to my mind, dates AI to mid-twentieth-century and earlier Bernaysian thinking, best explained as a time when the public can no longer distinguish between real and synthetic production. Edward Bernays (1891-1995) coined the term “Public Relations” as a substitute for propaganda. He is widely recognised as a pioneer in merging mass psychology with commercial advertising and, by appropriating the wisdom of his uncle, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), understood that humans tend to align with the herd. He orchestrated famous campaigns, like convincing women to smoke public cigarettes as “torches of freedom” (1929). Bernays applied Freud’s observations to convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs were the true all-American breakfast.