Arcadia Inc.

2021

digital simulation

Arcadia Inc. is a work of speculative fiction which investigates the commodification of nature through computer-generated landscape photography. In observing context erasure as the main mechanism behind re-programming images with new meanings, the work proposes a new model for obtaining the type of nature imagery meant for brand-based visual communication: a group of virtual beings which photograph scenic beauty in a real-time simulation, organized as a fictional company which produces stock images of natural environments. In an era when visual culture is created increasingly through technological automation, the work raises important questions about the future of image making.

You can visit the fictional company's website at arcadia.photography, or view an ambient slideshow of the most recent photographs on Arcadia 𝓝𝓸𝔀.

Exhibitions
2024 — Arcadia Inc. (solo), at Panke Gallery /rosa, part of Vorspiel Berlin, curated by Robert Sakrowski, Berlin
2023 — GUI / GOOEY, Plexus Projects, curated by Laura Splan online
2022 — Lumen Prize x Infinite Objects collection
2022 — Currents New Media, Santa Fe
2022 — Kampüste Dijital Sanat, Istanbul
2022 — Sculpted in Our Image, Forged in Our Minds curated by Tristan Sauer in collaboration with Inter/Access Toronto, online
2021 — SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, curated by Lizzy Chiappini
2021 — Lumen Prize Student Award

Production Credits
Emma Brown, sound design
Hannah Campbell, voice acting
Lizzy Chiappini, curation

Related Work
What Does the Desktop Want?, a talk I gave at the 2021 Computer Mouse Conference
Human Interface Guidelines (Metaphor), a two-channel video
24 Hours Relaxing Landscape for Stress Relief, a three channel video

Ansel A.I., a virtual being working for Arcadia Inc., introduces the project.

Exhibition view at Panke Gallery /rosa, Berlin.

Photograph taken by a virtual being, displayed on the now.arcadia.photography website with metadata revealing environmental conditions within the simulation.

Un-edited screen recording of the softpower.exe real-time simulation (video + sound). Time was sped up in this instance of running the simulation – one full day cycle happens in 1 hour.

Photograph taken by a virtual being, displayed on the now.arcadia.photography website with metadata revealing environmental conditions within the simulation.

Exhibition view, Kampuste Dijital Sanat, Istanbul

Photograph taken by a virtual being, displayed on the now.arcadia.photography website with metadata revealing environmental conditions within the simulation.

Still from the softpower.exe real-time simulation.

Exhibition view, Currents New Media, Santa Fe

32W,560S, UV Print on Aluminum Dibond, 20” x 15” (50.8 x 38.1cm)

Exhibition view, Panke Gallery /rosa, Berlin.

1967W,9N, UV Print on Aluminum Dibond, 20” x 15” (50.8 x 38.1cm)

SPRING/BREAK 2021 installation view; the show curator, Lizzy Chiappini, selected seven photographs taken by the virtual beings to print at high resolution on aluminum dibond, in conjunction with displaying the real-time simulation as a single-channel video of infinite duration. (image by Lizzy Chiappini)