WHY MEDITATE WHEN YOU CAN SCREAM

WHY MEDITATE WHEN YOU CAN SCREAM (2023) combines AI generated images with text. Utilising AI technology to reflect the anxious absurdity of current existence, the images replicate post-pandemic life being seemingly stranger than ever.

Endless receding hairline adverts, second hand self-help, spy balloons, high smiles, aspirational violence, stress eating, hate watching, drag bans, another mass shooting, hot takes, deepfakes, big red boots, another mass shooting, did you see the reels babe, bodily betrayals, falling for you, falling apart, delivery drones, dumb ways to die, not being able to afford lettuce. It's giving end times.

The combination of image and text borrows from meme aesthetics, however the overlaid text often merges with the image rather than being instantly clear. Scraped from; spam emails, twitter porn, community forums, social media trolls, dating app interactions and personal notes, the text elements encourage the viewer to take a breath, a double take of the jarring content. Observations on our shared experiences, the bold text and AI imagery juxtapose fragments from our current reality. The clash of text and image replicates the way we digest multiple sources of information at once, mirroring our chaotic consumption of content.

Like a leaky gut, data permeates into out systems. Daily digital doses dripping into our collective consciousness. The work embraces the exponential growth of AI seeping into our daily lives. With fears that ChatGPT will eliminate jobs, the ‘Godfather of AI’ quitting Google, indistinguishable deepfake celebrity hoaxes, chatbot misinformation and AI scams on the rise, the opinion that ai poses profound risks to humanity seems pretty valid. WHY MEDITATE WHEN YOU CAN SCREAM reiterates these concerns in conjunction with IRL anxieties and real world anecdotes.

A4 saddle stitched book, 52 pages.

More information on the project available here - https://callumleohughes.com/WHY-MEDITATE-WHEN-YOU-CAN-SCREAM