Whales and mollusks
Video, 2025
About the artwork
The figure of the whale is not merely a creature of nature, but a cultural symbol of power and dominance — those who can stir the waters with a single flick of the tail. They do not swim — they control the current. Their bodies cut through the sea, leaving behind graphic surges like candlesticks on a volatile market chart.
And opposite them — the mollusks. Two sailors in a boat. They are micro-figures, composed of code, cursors, and fragments of interfaces. Their digital bodies are a collage of epochs — from ASCII to broken layouts. They drift, without participating, only observing, adapting, clinging to stability in the unstable.
A chronicle of a digital biosphere, where nothing depends on you — but on someone else's fin.
Sound design by don't Buy
Audio explanation
Listen to don't Buy discuss this work.
Don’t Buy is a visual artist who creates digital paintings, videos, and GIFs using artificial intelligence and mixed media. Embracing a moniker that itself subverts consumerist language, he approaches art-making with a hacker’s spirit – repurposing AI technology to explore the beauty of errors and the aesthetics of early digital culture. In his work, glitchy abstractions and retro graphics converge to address themes of identity and imperfection in the online era. “When a cold, mechanical machine makes a mistake, it becomes a little more human,” Don’t Buy notes, reflecting his view that technological faults can reveal human qualities. This philosophy underscores much of his art, which often highlights the serendipity of algorithmic mistakes and the nostalgia of outdated interfaces.
A participant in Fellowship’s AI art program, Don’t Buy has presented projects that encapsulate his ethos. Notably, his series 404: SELF NOT FOUND (2024) is an assemblage of AI-generated imagery probing our entanglement with digital identities and the nature of error. Through a mix of dark humor and experimental technique, he transforms mundane clicks and computer glitches into artistic meditation.