Avian adventures (X New Worlds)
Video, 2023
About the artwork
In my series, Lucid Dreaming, I explore the creative potential at the intersection of the human mind and artificial intelligence. When I lucid dream - that is, become aware that I'm dreaming and able to control the dream - I can craft new, visceral and otherworldly universes from my imagination. These dreamscapes feel as visceral as the ‘real’ world, and upon waking I'm often left in awe of the fantastical visions that I’ve experienced.
I see a profound parallel between the limitless world-building potential of lucid dreaming and the creative possibilities unlocked by AI technologies. Just as I can directly shape the course of my own inner dreamworlds, AI empowers me to craft new realities, dimensions, and modes of existence.
The process often feels like it mirrors the way our brains consolidate memories and impressions during sleep - AI systems ingest vast troves of data, which they then recombine in unexpected and unbounded ways. Perhaps why experimentations with this medium feel inherently dreamlike.
There is also a feeling of freedom that there is so much still unexplored with AI as a tool. There are so many different ways to synthesise and amalgamate with other creative disciplines and that feels incredibly exciting.
AI generated music and sound design by X New Worlds
Audio explanation
Listen to X New Worlds discuss this work.
X New Worlds is a London-based artist and designer who examines the nature of consciousness and the ephemeral. Drawing inspiration from her experiences with sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming, she weaves surreal and absurd worlds that explore the precipice between conscious and unconscious realities.
Her work has been showcased globally in spaces such as the Saatchi Gallery, ArtSpace55, Times Square New York, Nou Museum, Canal180 and more. She has been published and featured in Telescope Magazine Volume II, Prompt Magazine, Forbes Australia, and Nasty Magazine.