We are at an inflection point. I know the Metaverse is coming, I feel it, but I can’t see it yet.
The TWT10K project has given me a chance to explore this new dimension. This collection is an expression of my attempt to migrate my Web2 practice into Web3, and try to understand how photography can play a critical part in taking what is best from one reality and seeding it into another.
“Flora of Argleton Lane” is a collection of images of nature that I have captured in Google Street View over many years of virtual travel (instagram.com/streetview.portraits), that I have now reimagined for the metaverse using AI. The focus on nature was inspired by my sense that the Metaverse is something that is emerging organically, it reminds me of a Brian Eno quote where he says, "composers are becoming more like gardeners than architects". “Flora of Argleton Lane” is an experiment in fusing the mindset of a gardener with the sensibilities of a photographer.
“Argleton Lane” is the name of the corner of the metaverse I discovered during lockdown (opensea.io/collection/homes-of-argleton-lane). Not for the first time, my anxiety disorder manifested itself as a desire to virtually escape to new places, this time by collaborating with an AI trained on my Street View images. The process has revealed a metaverse ready, alternate reality, that looks a bit like here, but isn't.
The AI does not simply transform a photograph, it uses a photograph and written words as the seeds to grow an entirely new image. It has been exciting to explore how to creatively collaborate with an AI to craft the emotional effect of my output. I have spent most of my time exploring how to amplify the nature of what I loved about the accidental essence of the moments I discovered in Street View, and how those moments resonated with my feelings of awe, harmony and isolation.
I have set the metadata for this image to its seed location in the real world, its fruit is very much located on "Argleton Lane".
