Untitled, 2018 by John J. Vukelic

Design maquette for the exhibition space.

2018 Exhibition Flash Photographic Festival, Canada¹

Machine’s Kant Reason by John J. Vukelic

Artist’s Statement:

“Composition in art is a means of guiding the viewer’s eye to where the artist needs it to go. It’s a way of focusing the viewer’s attention on what is important in image. Even if the viewer’s eyes should wander composition will help guide then back.

Here with this work, and the one’s that will be on view during the exhibition, I use an optical illusion referred to as “hybrid image effect”² as a compositional means of controlling the viewer’s gaze. Instead of the moving the viewer’s eyes around the image the eyes are guided to move in and out of the work. What the viewer sees changes as their focus changes. What you see will change depending on what you are focusing on. Your point of view matters in what you see.

What of the images? Viewed close you see a machine and stepping back you see the image of the embodiment of the holy spirit.

The machine, like us but not us, represents the field of artificial intelligence. Machines having been instructed to act in a certain way guided by their own coded intentions. Standing close you will see an image of a machine programmed with intent.

But what is the machine’s intent? What intent was it made to have?

I hope in the future, when these machines are all around us, and we take a step back to view what it is we have made we see these machines have been taught the code of the categorical imperative^3,4 to live in peace with their neighbours.”

This exhibition, and 90⁵ others spread across the province of Manitoba, will open on October 1, 2018. My images will be on display 24/7 at the front yard of 81 Edgewater Drive, Winnipeg. If you have visited the exhibition and would like to leave a comment please feel free to do so in the comments section below.

Notes:

1. Flash Photographic Festival website https://www.flashfest.net/about/
2. Oliva, Aude and Schyns Philippe G., (2017). Hybrid Image Illusion. The Oxford Compendium of Visual Illusions, 763-766
3. Roger Scruton (2001). Kant, A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 82-87

4. TheSchoolOfLife. “PHILOSOPHY:Immanuel Kant.” YouTube. YouTube, 13 November 2015 [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsgAsw4XGvU

5. Link to Flash Fest Exhibitors list 2018 https://www.flashfest.net/artists