Sofia Crespo
temporally uncaptured, 2023-2024
Neural networks, cyanotype prints, digital video
'Temporally Uncaptured' is a series of works that delve into a speculative realm at the advent of the camera, where the sequential capture of images brought to life the stills painstakingly illustrated from observations. The work focuses on the often imperceptible temporal transitions in the life cycles of organisms, including but not limited to, the microscopic.
A system of neural networks was used to generate images that capture the diversity of the organisms' shapes, not through direct observation, but through the distillation of historical archives of their early depictions. The resulting videos consist of frames, which were hand printed by the artist using the cyanotype technique and later digitised.
Furthermore, this series of works was inspired by Anna Atkins and her book 'Photographs of British Algae’, from 1843. The importance of Atkins work, whilst obvious now, was at the time a very difficult endeavour wherein the pivotal work of female scientists was ignored, misattributed, or otherwise downplayed.
A system of neural networks was used to generate images that capture the diversity of the organisms' shapes, not through direct observation, but through the distillation of historical archives of their early depictions. The resulting videos consist of frames, which were hand printed by the artist using the cyanotype technique and later digitised.
Furthermore, this series of works was inspired by Anna Atkins and her book 'Photographs of British Algae’, from 1843. The importance of Atkins work, whilst obvious now, was at the time a very difficult endeavour wherein the pivotal work of female scientists was ignored, misattributed, or otherwise downplayed.
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