The Fifth Channel

Image correction is nothing new and from the earliest darkroom images we saw blemish removals and false composites made from many negatives. Dictators who fell out of favor were removed from the visual archive. Bodies have been shaped to meet shared cultural ideals of the era. As a contemporary society we have lived with corrected and filtered images for over a hundred and fifty years now. We know now that image correction has led to body dysmorphia for millions of humans. It is always a good time to critique the tools we use whether they are used for creative or commercial ends.  I have used Photoshop sparingly in my work since 1995 and generally only used it for simple dust spot removal–artifacts of the tangible world. I have taught hundreds of college students how to create fictional composites, but I rarely did this in my own work. I have, however, made many images of the landscape, seeing it as some kind of blank slate to express my thoughts on perception. The Southwestern American landscape is anything but a blank slate and I have been coming more to terms with my own bias in perception and vantage point. 

With many artists jumping into using AI image synthesis tools, I have recently been experimenting with the correction tools in Photoshop and using them as synthetic mark-making agents. I am using them naively to create artifacts that did not exist in the original image (even if they are based on other areas of the image). I am prone to experimentation in my work and this often entails intentionally misusing the tools provided. This almost always yields new directions for my work. In these new pictures I am digging into how the software works, how it sees, and how I can manipulate IT. I am beginning with images made in the high desert, a place I love deeply. The digital marks made in collaboration with the software hint at some kind of corruption. They are a reminder of what I chose to see and what is left out. They also show me what the software sees in the images.

All digital photographic images contain pixels that are made of four possible layers: red, green, blue and then a selection layer called the alpha channel. I like to think of the new marks I am making as living in the fifth channel layer, highlighting the correction algorithms of the software–the misshapen “thoughts” that I am forcing to arise.