Diffusion

The work discusses spirit photography during the Republican era as a medium of hauntology storytelling, exploring the intertwined relationships between photography, AI diffusion models, and the deceased. In 1946, radiation monitor David Bradley dissected a pufferfish he had caught in the warm waters of Bikini Atoll. Just days earlier, the United States had used this chain of islands and coral reefs as a nuclear testing ground. Bradley retrieved the pufferfish from the radioactive lagoon, dissected it, and placed its fatty tissue on photographic film in a darkroom... The contaminated bones, internal organs, and last undigested meal left their image on the photographic paper—the irradiated pufferfish, this lifeless creature, became the "photographer" itself. In a nightmare, an endless corridor is filled with faceless people... The photographer K realises that he is a digital human generated by an AI diffusion model, immortal, doomed to wander the building forever. AI-generated humans often have "seven fingers, eerie eyes, clumped hair, blurred teeth, and contradictory lighting..."—almost identical to what K had seen in his nightmares.