Using Mary Shelley’s cautionary tale of scientific hubris both as an inspiration and a lens through which to view recent developments in artificial intelligence, my project Frankenstein’s Camera deliberately seeks to blur the line between photography and generative AI. In doing so, it opens up a space to reflect on the potential implications, and possibilities, of this emerging form of technical image: an image which, not unlike Frankenstein’s creature, has been given ‘life’ by artificial means. Speaking as an artist for whom the appeal of photography and its related practices has always lain in their perceived connection to some ‘necessarily real thing’, in this talk I offer a critical reflection on the development of Frankenstein’s Camera to date: including the various conceptual, technical, and ethical challenges it has posed; how it has informed my understanding of generative AI’s ‘visualising gesture’; and what insights Frankenstein might hold for photographic practitioners today.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V6o5xqN...