Selections from Unleashed (a series in process)

Unleashed is an allegorical tale about anthropogenic change using allusions to Greek mythologies of Eve, Pandora, and Medusa as a stand-in for human actors. Our impact on the environment has a long historical trail that results from both deliberate action and side effects of what we consider human progress. Invention makes life easier but creates changes that have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water. We already live with the impact of our actions (and inaction) aggregated to unleash bomb cyclones, excessive temperatures, and devastating wildfires. Scientists warn that these will affect human behavior via mass migrations and battles over clean water. Humans have not stepped up and taken the dire actions needed to mediate that which we have "unleashed." At the same time, this series addresses the tools used to make it: AI and our "unleashing" of it into the world. Along with concerns about deep fakes, copyrights, and misinformation, there are seemingly limitless possibilities for artists and photographers. To explore the copyright and authorship issues, I asked myself when work crosses over from being a collaboration with the machine to something that only the artist can create. I challenged myself to create photorealistic works that mimic the photos I make with a camera using the text-to-image, prompt-based software, MidJourney. Ultimately, I found I could create realistic-looking "photographs" that looked like mine.