Boris Eldagsen featuring Tanvir Taolad: ‘Pseudomnesia / Trauma Porn’
Pseudomnesia is the classic Greek term for a pseudo memory, a fake memory, such as a spurious recollection of events that never took place, as opposed to a memory that is merely inaccurate. Fusing the visual language of 1940s and post-war photography with the history of abstract art, Boris Eldagsen draws a line from the early days of generative art to the generative-AI of today. These promptographs were made by an elaborated workflow, combining #textprompts, #blend and #imageprompts, followed by #inpainting and #outpainting techniques.
The work TRAUMA PORN is an experimental installation that deals with trauma as a long-term consequence of war. TRAUMA PORN is a collaborative work with artist Tanvir Taolad (Bangladesh) that uses old photographs from Nazi Germany and World War II as source material for AI-generated and experimentally altered imagery. In the installation, the historical photographs are mixed with the generated images, but remain clearly identifiable due to their frames. The three-part installation attempts to put itself in the head of a follower who was attracted to a totalitarian system (part 1), went to war (part 2) and was traumatised by it (part 3).
The beginnings of the "TRAUMA PORN" work go back over 20 years. My father died in 2000. He was born in 1924 and went to WW2 at the age of 16. He never spoke about his experiences; towards the end of his life he had flashbacks in hospital. It took me a long time to understand that my father was a highly traumatised person. Between 2003-9 and from 2021-23 I collected photographs of Wehrmacht soldiers from estates, flea markets and online. It was only through KI that I found a way to make a work through this material. TRAUMA PORN also includes a version of my promptography "The Electrician", as my work on TRAUMA PORN led to the aesthetics and creation of the famous AI-image.
The work is dedicated to Ukraine.
November 17 — November 25, 2023
Read press release
Invitation to the opening reception (November 17, 2023)
Media coverage:
Kathimerini (Greek)