odla
CONCEPT
ODLA is set 214 years in the future, in the year 5999 according to the Hebrew calendar. Researchers discovered a decommissioned laboratory from the 21st century that once experimented with AI and robotics technology.
The algorithms and machines are obsolete but the stories they tell about humanity in the digital age are abundant: our desires, failures, successes and what survived the blast.
The lab has succumbed to overgrowth. Flora, fauna, and fungi left to adapt to nuclear fallout; occupying the remains of what was once advanced technology, now remnants of our future past.
Archivists documented high-fidelity imagery of each machine, sediment, creature, and organism.
PROCESS
odla WAS DEVELOPED IN COLLABORATION WITH Living Encyclopedia: Large Nature Model (LNM) BY REFIK ANADOL AND DATALAND TEAM.
100 images were constructed over a 90 day period and pre-processed using adobe tools (lr + ps).
Each image was then redefined and upscaled using topaz labs gigapixel image model for high-fidelity resampling, up to 8192 x 8192 240 ppi.
The series was finalized with post-processing for color, light, and artifact detail and upscaled to 10000 x 10000 300 ppi for physical print options.
TRAITS AND ARTIFACTS
ODLA explores an array of visual elements DETAILED IN THE TRAITS LIST: TYPE, FLORA, FAUNA, FUNGI, AND Impromptu ARTIFACTS.
There are seven artifacts not detailed in the grid below which include PAREIDOLIA, SNOW, FRUIT, EYES, MILK, CLOUDS, and LANDSCAPE.
cLOSE OBSERVATIONS ARE ENCOURAGED FOR DISCOVERY.
TYPE
FLORA
FAUNA
FUNGI
ARTIFACT
MACHINE
YES/NO
YES/NO
YES/NO
ROBOTICS
SEDIMENT
YES/NO
YES/NO
YES/NO
PEOPLE
CREATURE
YES/NO
YES/NO
YES/NO
ANIMALS
ORGANISM
YES/NO
YES/NO
YES/NO
MULTI
CLOSING rEMARKS
My faith in the word of God has become a significant influence on the process of contextualizing ideas and concepts around lived experience in the modern world.
As an artist and thinker in the age of social media, artificial intelligence, robotics, and blockchain technology; purpose becomes a reoccurring focal point of study.
The 2020 pandemic and subsequent lock downs affected humanity in more ways than we can fathom. During this time of forced isolation, communities formed online and onchain in response to an inherent desire for connection.
Technology provided the access point and decades of digital growth were consolidated into months and years in the process.
AI hit escape velocity in user adoption while internet life in the form of social, gaming, and finance rapidly accelerated.
Automation and robotics are at the precipice of ubiquity as we witness jobs forgoing human touch for code and silicon.
Convenience and comfort aren’t inherently disruptive yet we feel the water boiling as we bathe in it as a society. Our inventions should aid in our quality of life but we’re experiencing the unforeseen consequences of their implementation.
Loneliness and addiction in contrast to access and distribution are weights on a balance that we must grapple with on a daily basis.
Tools aren’t good or evil by nature. the user decides if they build or destroy.
However, certain applications are out of our control, but influenced by levels of consumption, which go unnoticed in the necessity to survive.
The race to the bottom for cheaper and faster addresses the present but negates the future.
We find fulfillment when in service of others yet the promise proposes abundance without workmanship
In the absence of occupation, where do we find purpose? In exchange for autonomy, do we settle for ease? If the experiments fail, when will we course correct or do we adapt and find a way?
ODLA is a visual commentary on these questions, exploring the possibility of life beyond our creations, where obsolescence is confronted by
the grass that grows and the flowers that bloom.
Isaiah 40:8