May 10 to June 4, 2024 / B&B Photo Gallery / at 1 Maja Street 12 in Bielsko-Biala / Opening on May 10, 2024 at 6 p.m. Free admission.
How close - portraits from the world of the future at the B&B Photo Gallery in Bielsko-Biała
- The "How Close" project is a vision of a world of harmony between humans and animals. Today it is still unreal, but the development of technology gives us the potential to redefine our relationship with nature. I cordially invite you to an exhibition showing a symbolic reflection of these new relations," says Maciej Cieslak, whose generative portraits of people and animals can be seen at B&B Photo Gallery in Bielsko-Biala.
The "How Close" project is a series of portraits of symbiotically bonded pairs of humans and animals. These photographs of the future were created using artificial intelligence. They represent a vision that is still a utopia, although it may soon be artificial intelligence that will completely redefine the existing knowledge and paradigms that describe the relationship between humans and nature.
The starting point of the project was to reflect on the potential of scientific progress and the role of artificial intelligence capable of generating new solutions that challenge the anthropocentric vision of the world.
"By creating portraits, I wanted to show the possibility of breaking the previous visions of relationships between humans and other species. To create images of partner closeness. In the context of using artificial intelligence, which draws visual patterns from early data resources, this was a huge challenge. In our visual culture, depictions of animals and humans usually clearly emphasize a power relationship. The works generated based on these patterns were at first a reflection of these hierarchical perceptions of our relationships." - says author Maciej Cieslak about the exhibition.
"And yet, in light of today's research, it is difficult to sustain the narrative of human primacy in the world. Even at the biological level, it has already been confirmed that our genomes are largely identical to the genetic codes of many other species. Perhaps soon we will be able to ask animals directly about a shared future - the use of artificial intelligence has already accelerated work on projects to learn the languages of animals, including the sperm whale."
"So let's take a close look at ourselves right now. What is possible in the shared world of animals and humans?"
More about the exhibition:
Maciej Cieślak - about the author
Maciej Cieślak - photographer by passion, nuclear physicist by education, financier by profession. Member of the Union of Polish Artists Photographers. For him, photography is a way of discovering the world and telling stories. The most common subject of his works is man, his experiences and his relationship with his surroundings. But he is also fascinated by nature, especially in the context of the relationship between people and nature. He works in the field of reportage and portrait photography.
His photographic projects have been exhibited in more than a dozen solo exhibitions. He is the winner of the 2010 National Geographic Poland photo contest and the 2017 and 2018 IPA International Photography Awards. He is also the author of the photos for the book "Ah, the smell! A guide to the fantastic world of smells" (Buchmann, Warsaw 2023). He lives and works in Warsaw.
Website: www.maciejcieslak.com