This work responds first to Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency and the idea that perhaps, due to cultural image saturation, Goldin’s Ballad exists more in the titles of the works than in the photographs. Simultaneously, all artefacts in the current digital space are vulnerable to exploitation by the large language models (LLMs) that drive commercial generative AI. Responding to predation by LLMs has two possible approaches: withhold information or poison the input. What would it mean to create a work that can only be apprehended by a human in the same space with it? By hiding the written context in UV ink and providing no context for the inkjet prints, this work is illegible to an LLM. Ballad is a human, speaking to other humans, in a way that cannot be “overheard.”
Ballad of the Panopticon was shown at Artemisia Gallery in September 2024.
Timber, mat board, inkjet prints, wall paint, UV ink, UV torch, brass hook.
Documentation images by: Aaron Claringbold.
