I was asked to write this piece after a talk in Barcelona. At the talk I deleted 80,000 AI-generated images from my hard drive. It was a low-quality copy of more interesting art deletions that have happened before. Apologies to Michael Landy and others.

The main thing I was feeling at the time is that I wanted to reject the images that I’d made during lockdown. A period when I became too attached to my computer and image-generation. I would sit up late at night, waiting for the computer to spit out images of things that no one had ever seen before. Conjuring up visual representations of any idea you could possibly have. It’s really fun. And remarkably addictive to a certain kind of brain. I now had a machine I could command to bring to life any stupid thought in my head. For me it was like getting a fridge with a crack dispenser.

The images supporting this piece won’t make much sense. Or if they do you should probably seek help. I was exploring a lot of different things at the same time. Some of them were good ideas, mostly not…. A response to being locked up. My way of exploring ‘other worlds’ while not allowed out. I loved it. But I could see it wasn’t good. For me as an individual.