<i>New Topographics: Man-Altered Landscapes</i> Become Machine-Altered Landscapes: An Examination of AI Generative Images

In 1975, the New Topographics: Photographs of a Man Altered Landscape exhibition depicted a built environment that is part of our accepted photographic past. The landscapes and architecture produced by many AI software applications are envisioned as a possible future. In 2022, Artist Craig Ames used AI text-to-image prompts to reinterpret the New Topographics archive, generating his ‘Algorithmic Landscapes’ and challenging our view of that historic world. In this paper, Ames’ work shown at Format23 Festival, UK, is evaluated using literature review, visual analysis, and author interviews. Due to the relative infancy of the software used, the ‘wit’ seen here simply represents a transitory stage viewing experience and evaluation of AI ‘photographs’. Visually literate audiences discern fact from fiction, a what they know was there into what could have been there. The joke is shared, but until the point of cognition, the images are disconcerting, unsettling. In the time since Ames produced his work, communication technology has developed apace, making it more it difficult to determine the real world versus an imagined one. Lens-based and AI outputs intangibly intertwine across mainstream and social media, posing further implications for knowledge creation and understanding of photographic content as it is currently known.