WE'RE DOOMED. All of us. The book in English is finally available. Order in the webshop (opens in new window) or send me an email.
What is Piek up to now?
WE'RE DOOMED
Piek has made her 5th book. A booklet about Artificial Intelligence and the End of Times. There might be a cause-and-effect relationship, but maybe not.
An artwork, but also informative. Personal and also universal. 98 pages. Lots of images. Also quite a bit of text.
Piek has made extensive use of various forms of Artificial Intelligence. She feeds her own drawings into an AI platform that, after her prompt, turns them into illustrations that look like old photos. The drawings are already alienating and surrealistic: the result after AI even more so. She also fed text generators with her old dreams and stories. She engaged in conversations and had famous quotes revised. She explored why the end of times seems closer than ever (of course: time only moves forward) and also explains why we really need to be careful with the Earth and with AI.
"I have always been very interested in technological developments. I research them, use them, and remain critical. When AI art generators became freely available in the summer of 2022, I had hundreds of images generated. The fact that the result can look like a photo made it extra attractive. It quickly became clear that an image that looks like a photo is not a photo.
Although writing a good prompt can be difficult, I quickly felt the limitation. The work was not mine. The aesthetics are smooth and impeccable. It doesn’t have any rough edges.
Primarily, I am a photographer, but I also create visual work in other ways: video and drawings. One day, I found an AI platform where beta versions are tested. I could upload the somewhat surrealistic drawings (made with pen and ink or pencil) that I had already made (hundreds) and transform them into something new with a prompt. I asked to convert the drawing into something that looks like an analog black-and-white photo: like the ones I made myself 30 years ago with my Hasselblad.
For me, several things came together: drawings, photography, and my interest in technology and AI. Because my drawings form the basis for the image, I remain the owner of the result.
The booklet contains many of these images. I explore boundaries and possibilities. I communicated with chatbots and had various text models rewrite older and new texts of mine. I also had a few texts by others rewritten.
It is an exploration of originality, the value of content and image. It exists at various intersections: present, past, form, and content. I explore the boundaries of what is traditionally seen as photography, and I do the same with text.
This is my fifth book. This time, I chose to work with a very small print run, a small format, and a relatively less expensive way of printing. It fits the subject and my approach: I like to work intuitively, and I found autonomy in this way of working. When I started, I wanted to make a kind of handbook, a guide to carry with you at the approaching end of times.
Because ‘real’ printing can only be done in large print runs and becomes relatively cheaper as the print run gets larger, many photographers have many boxes of photo books at home. The tens of thousands of euros needed for that printing often have to be obtained through crowdfunding or loans. I have done that before. I didn’t feel like doing it again.
When the stakes are so high, everything becomes more polished, polished, and overproduced. Everything shines and is perfect. I like it when it has a bit of roughness when it is not perfect. This is who I am as a creator.
I look for the fringes and create work on the periphery.
And we are definitely doomed, but not just yet."
"In recent decades, the profession of photography has changed significantly. This began some time ago, for example, during the popularity of the magazine “Rails.” Designers then gained more influence over the appearance of photos, sometimes reducing the photographer’s role to that of a ‘button-pusher.’ The comment “We have a nice background here for the portraits” is something every photographer has heard. I do not claim that the decline of many magazines and journals is solely because photographers had less creative freedom, but it did happen concurrently. Shortly after, digital photography emerged, and everyone with a camera became a photographer. When social media became a significant part of our lives, photography became an accessible means for everyone to communicate and express themselves.
Despite everything, photography has also been accepted as a true art form in recent decades. While I welcome this, I also see the pitfalls: a photo on fine-art paper is not necessarily art. And by taking news photos out of their context, they are reduced to beautiful images that, in their original form, are infinitely reproducible. A painting can also be reproduced but loses its form (paint, canvas, etc.).
With the rise of AI-generated images that look like photos, part of photography is under even more pressure. It is important to realize that these are not real photos but illustrations. These are fine to use as images for some articles but not as a replacement for a photo based on truth. If a political party uses AI-created blonde ‘people’ to win votes, you hope this has the opposite effect. They are essentially saying that you, as a voter and target audience, are not good enough in your authenticity. They pretend to depict real people. AI can also be asked to make a pencil drawing or a linocut, but even then, no pencil or gouge is involved, and no linoleum.
It is still unclear where these developments will lead, but I am concerned. That is why I made a booklet: “WE ARE DOOMED.” This personal booklet contains a lot of use of AI. I had an art platform convert my own pen, ink, and pencil drawings into images that look like old photos. I had AI rewrite my dreams and some stories, and I asked AI what problems this could all cause. It is a personal, creative outburst that perhaps raises more questions than it answers."