Sine Waves (Variations on OneSecond), 2024, 35mm, 1125 frames

Untitled (Neural Networks) is a series of experimental large-format photograms and abstract 35mm films (started in 2018) that trace, explore, and investigate the structural conditions of what constitutes a a photograph (and its use) in today’s networked image regimes. I consider the intersection of artificial intelligence and neuroscience as profoundly pertinent to the understanding of how (technical) images operate today.

Untitled (Neural Networks, nn_oxb), 2020

The 1,440-frame-long film has been made with a score generated by an artificial neural network and coded in Python. The film explores the idea of an externalization of cognition which occurs through the advent of artificial intelligence, and the recursive principles it relies on. Through the flicker, the work resonates and interferes with the very system that initially constituted the model for its own structure, the nervous system.

Untitled (Neural Network, nn_oxb), 2020

Untitled (Neural Network), 2020 35mm, 1440 frames

Untitled (New York Studio), 2024, gelatin silver print, 5x7"

Density Test #11 (0.03, 0.43, 1.10, 1.37, 1.57, 1.73 - on Kodak 2302, 35mm), 2024, gelatin silver print, 5x7"

Berlin Studio, “Untitled (Neural Networks, nn_oxb/1)” 35mm film (1140 frames, 6 greys), first version, Berlin, 2019, gelatin silver print, 5 x 7 in.

Light Reflection on Water(the Seine), Paris, 2021, gelatin silver print, 5 x 7 in.

For Untitled (Neural Network, nn_oxb/eeg_FD), the rhythmic stimuli generated by the initial neural network film [Untitled (Neural Network, nn_oxb/1, 2020)] serve as an input signal to the viewer in order to induce an output signal in the form of a physiological reaction that can be measured/recorded via Electroencephalography.

Electrophysiological experiments have shown that the neurons in the visual cortex tend to fire in coordinated patterns when exposed to a specific visual stimulus, essentially synchronizing their activity to the characteristics of the presented stimuli. The rhythmic oscillations in the recorded neural activity are transposed into numerical series that are processed via Matlab /Fieldtrip and used to compose a new film (nn_oxb /eeg_FD).

Untitled(Neural Network, nn_oxb/eeg_FD), 2024

Untitled (Neural Network, nnoxb/eegFD), 2024 35mm, 1440 frames

Untitled (Furen Dai with a wearable EEG headset), 2024, gelatin silver print, 5x7”

Untitled (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour), Nijmegen, 2024, gelatin silver print, 5 x 7 in.

Untitled (Guus’Car), Eindhoven, 2020, gelatin silver print, 5 x 7 in.

The Seine, Paris, 2021, gelatin silver print, 5 x 7 in.

Untitled, Eindhoven, 2020, gelatin silver print, 5 x 7 in.

Untitled (Dan), New York, 2019, gelatin silver print, 5 x 7 in.

Untitled (Neural Network, nn_3d/7), 2019

Untitled (Neural Networks, nn_3d/7), 2019, Photogram on gelatin silver print, 63 x 101 cm (unframed), 86 x 122 cm (framed)

Untitled (Neural Networks, nn_3d) is a series of large-format, black-and-white gridlike images that are generated by a neural network, a program I have coded in Python to process data that simulates how neurons in the brain connect. The data sets (MNIST) entered into the program during the training phase in the form of numerical series alter the relations between the artificial neurons. These are subsequently transposed into matrixes and rendered into pixels by an animated sequence, which is then exposed on photo paper, letting the neural network take over the distribution of shadow and light for the photogram(s) to be made.

The photogram holds a crucial place in my photographic practice: it functions as a metonym for an inquiry into method, it marks the experimental nature of my practice, and it maps the system of indexical relations which, at various levels from the physical to the conceptual, constitute the image.