A new exhibition at RMIT Gallery explores photography’s transformation into a software output, featuring an interactive AI-image-generator.
The exhibition, execute_photography, is part of PHOTO 2024, Melbourne’s biennial International Festival of Photography. The festival runs until 24 March, with 100 free future-themed exhibitions at galleries and outdoor locations across Melbourne and Victoria.
Reframing photography as a kind of ‘program’ with a software output, execute_photography features work by Australian and international artists speculating on future photography’s social and political ramifications.
Dr Alison Bennett, exhibition curator, artist and Associate Dean, Photography in the School of Art, explained that photography has already been through several deaths and rebirths.
“Recent examples include the transition from analogue film to digital media in the late 20th century, then the introduction of the internet connected smart phone from 2007,” they said.
“These changes fundamentally redefined what was possible and how photography was used.
“The AI tipping point is just another example of how photography is constantly being redefined.”
Bennett said the exhibition features works that explore how photography has transformed into a software output, cannibalising the camera and even transforming it into a set of executable text prompts.
“The works are interactive and playful, prompting us to gain an embodied experience of this emerging and evolving territory.”
Other curators include Shane Hulbert, artist and Associate Professor in the School of Art, Daniel Palmer, Professor in the School of Art and Katrina Sluis, curator and Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at The Australian National University.