The Social Trust Objective

The objective of The Social Trust (TST) is to encourage donations to activist organisations that promote positive responses to climate change by supporting the development of renewable energy resources, promoting policies considerate of climate change and challenging corporations vested in the perpetual use of fossil fuels. The initial application of the Trust is to allay unresolved ethical issues associated with imagery produced by my engagement with generative artificial intelligence. 

The Water exhibition

An invitation from curator Frank Thirion to contribute to the Liarbird Gallery’s Water exhibition (15 July - 19 August, 2024) coincidently led to conversations about his foray as a visual artist into generative artificial intelligence. I was subsequently inspired and Frank referred me to a basic and free ‘word to image’ generative AI app. The outcome was four graphic images focusing on water as an Australian billabong, the Southern Pacific Ocean, Antarctic snow and ice, and atmospheric vapour. The artworks were generated in the form of certificates issued by the Trust. The certificates, collectively exhibited under the Trust’s title, were put to work in the service of the Trust’s objectives.  See  four certificates below.

Ethical attribution matters arose from this enterprise. (The advent of AI and its impact on the fine arts, I would argue, is comparable to the impact the camera had on the art scene two centuries ago). In relation to AI, I regarded my role as a creative director drafting the written instructions (equivalent to a ‘brief’, referred to in app parlance as a ‘prompt’) that governed the algorithm’s design of the certificates - elements of which, I envisaged, were canvassed and collaged from the visual imagery available to it online. Of course, this was not a consensual process, and probably amounted to a colossal, collaborative combination of copyright infringement and laissez-faire appropriation. Photoshop intervened (in my hands) at this point replacing illegible certificate inscriptions and tidying ragged edges. All of the apps idiosyncrasies and distortions were left untouched. It may well be that sensibilities about plagiarism by using AI can only be addressed by concerned artists ensuring their future artwork is quarantined from the communal ether.

As a gesture toward offsetting the deleterious effects of this emerging digital technology, and until artists have had time to adjust to it, TST Certificates, Stamps of Approval and POSTcards (see below) printed and framed behind glass, can be acquired only by verification of a specified and recent donation to a social activist organisation nominated in the work – in the case of the Water exhibition Certificates: Greenpeace Australia Pacific; Bush Heritage Australia; The Australian Conservation Foundation; and an appropriate organisation of choice. The nominated beneficiary for Stamps of Approval is the Australian Conservation Foundation, and for POSTcards it is The Wilderness Society. The artist does not receive any financial return; neither does the gallery in which the works might be exhibited.

  John Reid, 15 July 2024

The Social Trust Certificates

On exhibition at the Liarbird Gallery, Monash, ACT, until July 29, 2024

John Reid/Generative AI The Social Trust: Water as Southern Pacific Ocean (Certificate for Greenpeace Australia Pacific). 2024. 33.0 x 33.0 cm. Digital print

The Social Trust Stamps of Approval

As a complement the release of TST Certificates; and in keeping with the Trust’s objective of supporting climate activism, The Social Trust has launched a series of imagery, under the title Stamps of Approval, that is focused on food security campaigns - in the first instance by the Australian Conservation Foundation. The design of the Stamps are a synthesis of John Reid’s art direction, a generative artificial intelligence response to his brief, and considerable manipulation in Photoshop. When published (at some future stage) on the walls of a gallery as framed prints, the Stamps of Approval can be acquired by showing proof of a recent donation as specified. See four Stamps of Approval below.

The Social Trust POSTcards

Social Trust POSTcards explore urban allegories - in this instance decorative rocks set in suburban traffic islands as a substitute wilderness experience for the observing city-bound citizen. Unlike the Stamps of Approval (above), the POSTcards are designed by John Reid. The images are iPhone photographs taken by John Reid

The Social Trust Urban Allegory

Urban Allegory is a comparative study between ‘straight’ photography and AI generated images. As with POSTcards above, I have long regarded the decorative placement of rocks in traffic islands as prompting fleeting references to wild landscapes. In Urban Allegory, I have photographed this phenomenon as well as generated AI images in response to the same brief - produce an image of rocks aesthetically placed in a traffic island at an urban intersection. Initially, I favoured AI’s capacity for realism but it was the surprising, erratic, wild interpretations of the algorithms that caught my mind’s eye. Such AI imagery, their companion ‘straight’ photographs, and the comparative inquiry that arises from their collective viewing constitute this selection of work.