Imagine a work of art that echoes across eras, weaving a complex tapestry of the human experience—our collective dreams, memories, and the unresolved specters of history. In Empire, David Sheldrick attempts this daunting task. Comprising over 500 AI-generated images, Empire reaches into the deepest, unconscious layers of globalization, born from an intricate collaboration between human insight and artificial intelligence.
Sheldrick’s process is a journey through past and present, drawing on thousands of analog photographs that capture the ordinary rhythms of post-war life. In isolation, these images may seem mundane—snapshots of travel, domesticity, the quietly observed moments of a Western gaze. Yet brought together, they reveal the hidden continuities of a post-colonial world, where tourism and leisure extend a colonialist framework, reshaping lands and lives from afar. By feeding these images into AI, Sheldrick transfigures them into striking, surreal landscapes that feel both timeless and uncannily new.
In its vastness, Empire becomes a modern-day cabinet of curiosities, a collection of images that collapses borders, centuries, and cultures into a single, boundless vision. Here, past and future converge: the post-colonial gaze meets the virtual, reimagined by AI, inviting us to contemplate what lies beyond the limits of national identity and capitalist expansion.
Yet Sheldrick’s message isn’t one of despair; instead, it’s an invitation to imagine a new form of unity. Through his vision of a world synthesized—cultures, industries, and identities merged—Empire hints at a future where humanity transcends borders. At its edge, the work teeters between serenity and fragility, marked by images of distant conflicts and urban ruin, a quiet reminder of how precariously we stand on the brink.
The ethereal and the brutal often meet within Empire’s landscapes—impossible cityscapes, floating buildings, and machinery that feels pulled from a retro-futurist dream. In these moments, Sheldrick offers not just a warning but a hauntingly beautiful glimpse into a possible reality. It’s here, in this juxtaposition of peace and chaos, that the ghostly emerges, suggesting an unseen world lingering just beneath the surface.
Hauntological Echoes in Empire
In these haunting visions, Sheldrick draws on a concept known as hauntology, introduced by philosopher Jacques Derrida. Hauntology explores how the past haunts the present, how cultural echoes and historical remnants live on in ways we may barely perceive. In Empire, this ghostly continuity becomes a presence: a spectral reminder of colonial histories, bound up with the artifacts of technological progress. These images stir a quiet melancholy, as if each scene is aware of a forgotten origin—pieces of history that refuse to fade entirely, lingering like shadows across a globalized landscape.
Philosophical Synthesis: East Meets West
But Empire ventures further, delving into philosophical realms where East and West converge. Western philosophy often centers the human as separate from and dominant over the material world. In contrast, many Eastern traditions suggest a harmony between human and cosmos, a dialogue where all things exist in relation. Sheldrick invites us into this worldview, blurring the boundaries between people and the industrial landscapes they inhabit. Humans transform into objects—primarily industrial icons like automobiles—becoming part of the world they inhabit rather than apart from it.
This merging of human and object, surreal and hauntological, isn’t just visual spectacle; it gestures at an evolving relationship with technology, challenging traditional Western dualities. Sheldrick proposes a future where these distinctions dissolve—a world of synthesis, as fluid and boundless as the surreal landscapes he creates.
Integral Collaboration with AI
At the heart of Empire lies the collaboration between Sheldrick and AI, an exchange that shapes each image through an interplay of human intention and algorithmic patterns. The AI processes vast amounts of data, learning textures and themes that form the raw material of Empire’s world. This collaboration doesn’t just yield visuals; it births something intensely human yet otherworldly, pulling from the archive of history and the vastness of the digital.
Among the pioneers of AI art—figures like Refik Anadol and Mario Klingemann—Sheldrick’s work holds a unique place. Where others might experiment with form and technique, Empire ventures into the thematic, tapping into our consciousness and evolving as a cultural artifact. It’s more than a technical achievement; it’s a philosophical probe into the shared undercurrents of our society, drawing on the specters of memory and ambition that define our global moment.
Conclusion: A Beacon for the Global Imagination
In Empire, Sheldrick has created a work that mirrors humanity’s hope and vulnerability, a haunting vision for a unified world. Through these surreal, haunting images, he reminds us that while technology may amplify human potential, it can also lay bare our insecurities, our aspirations, and the unfulfilled promises of the past.
Ultimately, Empire is more than an art collection; it’s a journey through the shared dreamscape of modernity. Sheldrick offers us a mirror and a map, showing us where we’ve come from and where we might go. His art stands as a reminder that, amidst the relentless forward march of technology, it is our collective memory and imagination that guide us toward a world that could one day be truly unified. Here, on the precipice of a new era, Sheldrick’s Empire beckons us to explore the ghosts of our past, the dreams of our future, and the silent spaces in between.