Similar elements of landscape form are arranged in Becher-style grids to create AI generated typologies. Whilst the Bechers focused their attention on human-made structures, the grids here refer us to non-urban settings and are largely suggestive of change and upheaval brought about by natural forces. And yet, the imagery presented is the product of technology and in this sense more machine-made than natural. Individual images that have the allure of traditional landscape, on closer inspection, reveal their digital and algorithmic formation.

This series continues my exploration of landscape and technology being brought together. The imagery of change and instability might suggest climate change, and as ‘fake’ images there is a perhaps a reminder of the way in which digital technologies, in particular, have muddied the waters and made it difficult to identify the truth. Landscape for hundreds of years has been seen as a timeless zone of authenticity, outside of a constantly shifting urban culture, but with AI replication of nature and landscape this sanctuary of the real may be felt to be evaporating. Landscapes of fallen trees and dried up rivers might refer to climate change but equally they may make us think of the encroaching culture of digital replication and post-truth, with the potential to absorb nature into culture. But on the other hand, Romantic landscape has never been too dependent on physical terrain – the poetry of such landscapes are in part mentally constructed. And the Sublime and the Picturesque have always found potency in ruination. Perhaps, in spite of everything, something of the essence of Romantic landscape continues to present itself.