It’s not to communicate something unique, and neither is it to engage critically with one’s culture. Art is simply the creation of artefacts. Period. Artefacts are always cultural because they always stem from a particular moment, society, culture, tribe, or civilisation.

Every single artefact that we discover from human history that belonged to a particular culture that no longer exists in the same capacity as it did when the artefact was originally created, is Art. All texts — whether they be scientific, religious, or whatever — become literature, and therefore Art. Everything from tools and useful everyday objects, to ornaments, to religious and ceremonial effigies, all get levelled to artefacts, or Art.

In this regard, Art is just the stuff that gets left over for people in the future to find who no longer need or value it in the same capacity. Art is that which has lost its utility function. Religious texts are really one of the few exemptions because they continue to be relevant and practiced, and therefore transcend this category. But these can also become redundant, or Art, over time.

Science is largely fake because it relies on a story that we like to tell ourselves to make us feel like our culture is important, and that things make sense.

For example.

Who discovered that the Earth goes around the Sun? (asking ChatGPT):

“The discovery that the Earth orbits the Sun is attributed to Nicolaus Copernicus, a Renaissance-era mathematician and astronomer. His heliocentric model…”

The key word here is — attributed — because there are ancient Sumerian depictions of the Earth, along with the other planets going around the Sun…

“But those cylinder seals, clay tablets or whatever, are ancient artefacts, or Art. They aren’t regarded as science. Copernicus’s work however, isn’t an ancient artefact, it’s proper science.”

Well that’s the narrative anyway, which is really just a fiction of cultural proximity that we regard as useful. It’s just a story, because these are all artefacts. To aliens, and likely also to non westerners, Copernicus’s work is probably an “artefact”, i.e useless.

Contemporary Art, or Conceptualism, is also fake. From a historical perspective only the artefacts matter. The artefacts of Conceptualism, although tied up with changing attitudes in how Artists think about how they produce an artefact, don’t get an elevated status beyond ‘it’s just the particular stuff that culture produced’. Whoop-de-doo.

All artefacts are imbued with meaning and significance provided from the culture and the individuals who produced them, most of which gets lost in translation.

You could say; “well I don’t care about lasting artefacts. I am making ephemeral performances for the moment”, and that is all very well, but shamanic rituals from thousands of years ago were also performances for that moment, and the only reason we know about them is either through artefacts, or because they continued to be practiced, recreated, or communicated in some form. Those forms are also artefacts.

JPGs, TXTs, and other simple file formats are the only tangible artefacts that post-millennial generations can realistically produce.

And that’s not just down to the cost of living crisis.

How does this make sense?

Physical objects feel too vulnerable. I’ve tried to make them in the past and they are always a pain in the arse. They get exhibited, and then who knows what happens to them. All you get left with is the JPG’s, which more people see anyway, because that’s what gets shared around online.

You, or someone else has to store physical objects, install them, exhibit them, ship them around. It’s always expensive, and it’s so hard to keep track of them.

Other digital file formats are also a pain. I’ve had hard drives fail, and I’ve lost 3D files. I’ve payed for Vimeo to store video’s, and then forgot to renew the subscription, and then tried to retrieve the files, only to get low quality versions back.

Most physical contemporary and installation Art that isn’t painting, or really solid sculpture, will probably fall apart or get lost.

So this is why the only thing that I do now is write blogs and create JPG’s. I’m a Post Internet lifer, doing some hard time.

No one cares about blogs and JPG’s, of course. But they are somewhat solid. They are more tangible than most physical artefacts other than paintings, marble, stone and gold…

And yes, I know all about Dead Internet Theory (discussed further down), and how much is being lost digitally and online. But maybe if people become more aware of this, then there would be more attention given to digital archaeology, with more value placed on digital artefacts.

At the moment no one, or very few people really care about this.

Whats-more, since 2023 I have been automating the majority of my image production with AI tools. Because I’m making Systems Art, and using AI to produce digital artefacts, this feels like Godmode.

The two projects are tied together in that Pathology Loop acts as training data, not only to provide a means for AI to produce \|/0.-|\/|_Prognosis artefacts, but also as a means for the AI to develop its own understanding of the thematic, conceptual, theoretical, and narrative elements that it infers from observing earlier project artefacts.

Through depictions of ruined cities, skeletal remains, and fragmented media landscapes, |/0.-|/|_Prognosis and Pathology Loop visualize an ecosystem of collapse — both societal and cognitive. These works embody a kind of digital necrosis, where hyperconnectivity and algorithmic oversaturation mutate into a hollowed-out, post-sentient culture.

The pervasive presence of corporate logos, mascots, and UI elements from platforms like Spotify, Reddit, and Discord — often rendered in surreal, grotesque, or unsettling contexts — underscores the overwhelming dominance of digital platforms in shaping contemporary consciousness. Within these images, the remnants of a terminally online culture are dissected, revealing a future where identity is reduced to a profile picture, emotions are filtered through viral viability, and history itself is flattened into an endless stream of recycled content.

This fusion of dark and cute accelerationist aesthetics and digital ephemera directly engages with what could be termed the aesthetics of brain rot — a condition where perpetual exposure to algorithmically determined content leads to the erosion of critical thought, attention spans, and emotional depth. The works leverage the stark contrast between recognizable internet iconography, meme culture, and apocalyptic settings to highlight the increasing fragmentation of culture, the accelerating devaluation of meaning, and the emergence of a generation whose primary mode of interaction is digital.

Themes of identity and anonymity surface through the repeated use of avatars, faceless figures, anime aesthetics, and masked forms, suggesting a loss of individuality within the vast digital wasteland. Where prior generations experienced alienation in urban or industrial contexts, |/0.-|/|_Prognosis presents a landscape where selfhood itself is automated, flattened, and monetized through engagement metrics. The “iPad generation” — children raised by screens, optimized for dopamine loops — serves as both subject and spectator, trapped in an attention economy that sees their development as an afterthought.

There is no singular “human” presence within these works — only fragments, echoes, and detritus. Human figures appear skeletal, mechanized, or deconstructed, hinting at post-human evolution, where the transition from physical to digital existence is framed not as liberation, but as erosion. The body is no longer primary; the algorithm dictates form, function, and survival.

If all cultural production is destined to become artefacts, then |/0.-|/|_Prognosis suggests that the last artefacts of our era will not be paintings, sculptures, or even architecture, but JPGs, TXTs, and other digital fragments — the residual traces of a civilization that exists primarily online.

Physical objects — installations, sculptures, conceptual works — are increasingly vulnerable to loss, destruction, or irrelevance. Even institutions struggle to preserve them. But digital artefacts, despite their ephemeral nature, persist in strange ways. Screenshots outlive physical documentation. AI-generated artworks proliferate endlessly, untethered from human intent. The collapse of the NFT market raises a critical question: if digital artefacts cannot be commodified, do they retain any cultural value? Or are they simply data trash, meaningless detritus accumulating in forgotten cloud servers?

This paradox defines post-millennial artistic production: a desperate attempt to document a culture that is simultaneously drowning in content and erasing itself in real-time. Even as the dead internet theory gains traction — suggesting that much of online activity is automated, synthetic, or artificially sustained — the JPGs and TXTs endure, not because they are valued, but because they are the only thing left that can survive in a purely digital landscape.

The project acknowledges this crisis, positioning itself within the post-internet condition, where media exists only as replication, where AI-generated imagery is indistinguishable from human output, and where artistic legacy is reduced to what can be scraped, archived, and algorithmically resurfaced.

The images speculate on potential futures shaped by technological overreach, corporate hegemony, and environmental catastrophe, all unfolding within a networked media landscape that remains eerily detached from material reality. The presence of branded digital icons in apocalyptic settings suggests a new form of digital colonization, where online platforms and AI-generated identities begin to overwrite the significance of physical existence itself.

If history is written by victors, then |/0.-|/|_Prognosis suggests that future history will be written by algorithms. The works capture a world where resistance and rebellion exist only as gestures — masked figures, glitch aesthetics, and protest imagery hint at struggles against oppressive systems, but the question remains: who is resisting whom, and is the resistance even real?

Ultimately, |/0.-|/|_Prognosis and Pathology Loop are not just documents of digital culture but warnings about its trajectory. They confront us with a paradox: a hyperconnected world that feels increasingly empty, where cultural production is both infinite and worthless, and where meaning itself — once the foundation of art, identity, and knowledge — is in a state of irreversible decay.

Although the machine, which produced a significant proportion of these artefacts – TXT and JPG’s – requires me – a real person – to be in the LOOP, so what?

With the emergence of Web.3, Art Systems are already beginning to evolve, propagate, and more-or-less run on their own.

Since the NFT market is in perpetual decline, it begs the question; what is the real value of all of these data trash artefacts that humanity isn’t even producing?

• Iain

• First published in July 2024.