BURNING_MOTHS
Video, 2023
About the artwork
I love living light. I often use a candle holder with candles instead of artificial lamp light while working. I love how fire can play and be alive, it helps on lonely evenings while working. It also creates an interesting contrast when the light from my laptop and the candlelight intersect in my dark room. I think everyone has been able to watch moths surround a light source, and it can be deadly for them. At night, the moth navigates its movement thanks to the moon, but if it comes across an artificial light created by man, it is trapped. In the work I simulate moving moths flying to the light of a burning candle, they circle around it and some fly too close and get burned. As an audio supplement I use some recordings of my computer mouse clicks, at certain moments these clicks resemble the crackle of a candle, but of course it's more like the sound of cursors. I think it's a very funny parallel - while moths circle around the light of the lamp, we humans fall into another trap, finding ourselves in front of the light of the monitor in the darkness.
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underscores much of his art, which often highlights the serendipity of algorithmic mistakes and the nostalgia of outdated interfaces.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.