small talk (Nathan Boey)
Video, 2023
About the artwork
small talk' uses a virtual roaming camera to navigate the office, where every conversation feels like a high-stakes choice in a video game. Brief exchanges with co-workers are stressful, turning ordinary interactions into anxiety-driven challenges. The film explores the uneasy undercurrent of social dynamics in a seemingly mundane workplace, coming from the perspective of an introverted person.
Sound design by Boey
Audio explanation
Listen to Nathan Boey discuss this work.
Nathan Boey is a Canadian multimedia artist and director whose practice bridges filmmaking, animation, and cutting-edge AI art. Originally trained in film at Concordia University, Boey spent two decades honing his craft in visual storytelling – from directing stop-motion shorts to editing films – and earned accolades such as a regional Emmy Award along the way. In recent years, he has turned his focus toward artificial intelligence as a creative tool, seeing it as “a superpower for creativity” that offers unparalleled imaginative freedom. Boey’s work combines cinematic narrative techniques with AI-generated imagery, resulting in surreal, dreamlike video art that remixes real-life memories into unreal worlds.
Boey has emerged as a key figure in the AI art community through projects like Unmoored (2023), an AI-driven video series that was featured in Fellowship’s Post Photographic Perspectives II – Acceptable Realities exhibition. He is also a co-founder of AI OR DIE, the pioneering all-AI sketch comedy collective pushing the medium of video art into playful new territory. Across these endeavors, Boey stands out for his inventive blending of narrative film experience with generative technology. His work balances technical experimentation with storytelling and conceptual depth, positioning him as an exciting voice in contemporary art’s evolving dialogue with AI.