In Van der Auwera’s ‘VideoSculptures’, the screen and related hardware become sculptural material. The large-format "VideoSculpture XXV (Archons)" consists of eight manipulated screens and four black glass plates via which the images can be seen in their inverted form. This cinema in negative explores the theme of digital immortality. The work’s narrative is loosely based on futuristic tales by research and security specialist Rick Ferguson. Though images play across the screens, they are visible only on the glass, which replaces the filter as a polarising agent. To the naked eye, the screens yield nothing but a blank stare. It is only when looking down into the dark glass that one can see images flitting by, seemingly ad infinitum, as if squinting into an external universe.

In the embedded film, Van der Auwera reflects on the presence of artificial intelligence in today’s visual worlds. Using sequences of poetic images, he takes us into the world of deepfakes, AI-generated liquefied landscapes, viruses and security concerns. These transform themselves again and again into new scenarios, nostalgic images of a “dream machine” that uses the aesthetics of well-known photo databases. The narrative also includes documentary images that herald the “post-truth” age where we can no longer trust our eyes, or ears. We are immersed in poetic visions of a post-mortal digital life.

This work was commissioned for the artist’s solo exhibition at the House of Electronic Arts in Basel, Switzerland (2022) and supported by the European Union’s S+T+ARTS program via the Mindspaces Residency.