These works are based on my ongoing research into AI and machine learning, and how those technologies change the way we see and engage with the world. For these works I have used a range of tools including my own algorithms, as well as experiments with image generation and interaction with large language models. My research is focussed on the ethics and impacts of these systems, and their potential to manipulate the public in both subtle and unsubtle ways. For this series I have focussed on the impacts on non-human animals, including farm animals. Emerging AI technologies are already impacting non-humans, with industrial agriculture making extensive use of AI systems at many levels of production. In my works I imagine a life of leisure for all, non-human animals participating in the utopian life of ease in the post scarcity society promised by AI evangelists. Classical landscapes in the background allude to the Land of Cockaigne – the medieval dream of an abundant paradise.

However as any science fiction fan knows, utopias always imply their dark twin, the dystopia. The use of bright colour and relaxing animals is intended to draw the viewer in, even though aspects of these worlds are not functioning well – concrete is chipped, space junk falls from the sky and human remains are found in the trees. Painting remains a vital tool for interrogating AI. As an image making system, it draws on a deep history. It has the unique capability to while still absorbing and reflecting each new technology as it emerges, while still standing separate from it.