25 February – 27 May 2025
GVPL sxʷeŋxʷəŋ təŋəxʷ James Bay
385 Menzies Street, Victoria, BC
MTWThFS 10am-6pm
Overconfidence Can Lead to Recklessness
About the Work:
As an artist born in the heart of the Rocky Mountains of Canada, I draw large inspiration from the natural elements, and many of my works incorporate ideas of environmentalism within my conceptual practice, or other relevant issues or subjects containing conflicting or polarizing opinions or thoughts. Beyond these ideas, I am also compelled by the exploration of the human role and specifically its connection to Artificial Intelligence. With this project, I aim to explore the relationship between artist and AI, examining the roles each plays in the creation of art, AI’s current involvement in the art realm, and how it could potentially undermine or subvert traditional practices.
The elaborate system of creation for this work was intentional and aims to highlight the direct involvement and collaboration that Artificial Intelligence can offer to an artist. The system implemented to create this work is as follows:
| 1. Engage in a conversation with an AI software about AI and its impacts on the human race. 2. Manually transcribe the AI’s responses into numbers, assigning each word a specific number. 3. Instruct the AI to curate and allocate a frequency to each word. 4. Create an apparatus to physically visualize these sounds using a shard of mirror, fixed atop a latex diaphragm, which emits these sounds. This, in turn, reflects a light beam, largely exaggerating the reverberations into visual representations. 5. Document the reverberations and reassign the captured visualizations with the origin words accordingly. 6. Select the most compelling 5 word sentence, and print, mount, and display the corresponding reverberations. “Overconfidence Can Lead to Recklessness“ |
At the heart of all my work, lies an intention to inspire contemplation within the viewer, whether it is from an attempt of understanding the process, the meaning, message, topic, or any other evoked emotion. Above everything, my aim is that a viewer will be left with some sense of contemplation, and I strive to hone in that form of creation, with every work I create.
About the Artist:
Duncan Thorburn is a Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate with a Major in Visuals Arts. Thorburn draws inspiration from his Banff, AB upbringing, infusing natural elements into his photography and video art, and other mediums. Environmental concerns drive his creations, reflecting a deep reverence for nature. Thorburn’s passion for visual art fuels a diverse portfolio spanning photography, video, and other digital art and design. He aims to expand his artistry through larger-scale projects, emphasizing the beauty and significance of our natural world, and the impacts and destruction of human activities. Thorburn also is interested in systems, processes, and established parameters within works, and thoroughly considers how they are created, implemented, and brought into existence, and the products or byproducts they can create.
Thorburn currently resides in Victoria, BC, and is currently developing numerous projects regarding wildfires, the logging industry, and more.
