2024, Design installation at Nordiska Galleriet.
What would my design practice look like if I got to peel away my human emotions like self-doubt and worry? What if I removed all contradictions and fluctuations in taste? Is AI the answer?
This installation emerged from feeding an image generator my own sketches, words, and photographs, methodically building worlds from my own aesthetic until one interpretation came to life in physical form.
Through this process I created an artificial Alter Ego, who creates in a condensed and distorted reflection of my style.
The result felt like stepping inside an AI image. A polished, algorithmic representation, devoid of texture and materiality.
The pieces were produced by Swedish furniture company Källemo.
Alter EGO
As a human being I’m easily overwhelmed with doubt and emotion. My Alter Ego is not. She is a prominent designer who takes her artistry very seriously. Like me, she works from passion, but she has cult status, she believes where I doubt, she is:
Artificial where I'm real.
Sacral where I'm banal.
Stone where I'm textile.
Action where I'm intellect.
Resolute where I compromise.
For Alter Ego, I wanted to create a room that felt uncanny but familiar, something with an ambiguous scale, both vast and intimate, like a pocket-sized world. AI imagery leaves so much to be imagined, there’s always something that feels a little off, like there’s a glitch in the AI’s interpretation.*
*This is no longer true. AI has become too good for my taste.
This glitchy, uncanny quality became a central theme in this project. My inspiration is a blend of seemingly contradictory elements: office spaces, large desks and altars, combined with more intimate references like teenage bedrooms in movies or vanity tables. These elements came together to create a world that feels both sublime and personal.
By layering my own photographs, words and sketches with generated images, I allowed the process to shift between control and chance. The project shows that the artist’s authorship and lived experience not incidental. It’s the condition for this work to mean anything.
The lacquered surfaces are hard and smooth, almost devoid of texture. The sand and curtains ground us in the physical, bringing a sense of tactility.
A central element in the installation is a desk and mirror. It’s altar-like, but still intimate in scale. The tall pedestal speaks to the emptiness and potential within the artificial space.
Mirror: 3D printed wood-PLA with lacquer.
Table: Bent steel and MDF with lacquer.
Stool: Bent steel, MDF with lacquer, a padded leather seat.
Pedestal: Bent steel and MDF with lacquer.
Vase: 3D printed wood-PLA with lacquer.
