NOWHERE
. . photography installation


Keeping busy, indeed. A few months ago the great people at Paradox asked me to join the interactive visual gurus at RNDR to create music with a sensitive, immersive sound design for their ambitious project called NOWHERE. The project focuses on the intriguing photography of Frank van der Salm whose photos are the focus of the 18x3 meter installation.




NOWHERE – Imagining The Global City focuses on the past 25 years work of Dutch artist/photographer Frank van der Salm and consists of a large-scale exhibition featuring a video wall (powered by Artificial Intelligence), a collection presentation, a public program and a book. Paradox (project initiator), Nederlands Fotomuseum (partner and venue) and Frank van der Salm (author) are collaborating with the University of Amsterdam, RNDR – design studio for interactive media, architect Winy Maas and composer/sound designer Henry Vega.

Premiere Exhibition at the Nederlands Fotomuseum 2021
On a long facade an AI-driven montage of the work will be projected. Behind the wall, physical works will be on display.

In his PhD research at the University of Amsterdam, Gjorgji Strezoski (MK) studies the interpretative capacities of artificial intelligence. He co-developed a model fed with Van der Salm's complete oeuvre and concepts that were relevant to him; they were all attributed with a high or low value. Based on subjective concepts like 24/7, environment or alienation and the values attributed to them, the computer will indicate objective relationships between the images. This will shed a new light on the works and their social relevance. The visualization of verbal concepts, the images, the values they represent and the underlying machine language was translated into a monumental 18x3m projection by RNDR – design studio for interactive media. The accompanying sound design was produced by composer Henry Vega (US).

The presentation with the computer as a descriptor of the images as well as a guest curator is a unique opportunity to address the phenomenon of AI for the general audience and encourage a debate amongst professionals working in the archive and museum world. Are we dealing with AI as a 'helper' of the artist or AI as the ultimate curator?

Exhibitions:
Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam - NL 2021
The Three Shadows Photographic Art Centre, Beijing - CHINA 2025
Jimei x Arles Photofestival, Xiamen - CHINA 2025