Empire - The Process

~35,000 slides ranging from 1940-1990, artist Sheldrick in centre.

The collection is built on a library of around 35,000 privately collected colour film slides from over 1200 separate lots. Slides were found through estate sales, eBay, and collectors and span from around 1940 to 1990 across every continent. The majority of lots are photographs of individuals' personal life experiences while travelling or with friends and family. The transformative essence of Empire lies in its innovative use of artificial intelligence, a tool that allows the interaction of the past and present. By fine-tuning Stable Diffusion, an advanced AI model, Sheldrick performs style transfers between slides, blending images to create new compositions that challenge our understanding of history.

Philadelphia & Atlantic City 1952, tray 7 (Davidson Glass Slides), loupe & cleaning brush on lightbox.

The collection is built on top of a library of privately collected colour film slides (~35,000 slides), over 1200 separate lots. We began procurement of original 35mm & 120mm film lots from various periods & places in time through estate sales, eBay & collectors. The majority of lots are photographs of an individual's personal life experiences, such as holidays, special events, work and family.

Screenshot of digital archive of the 35mm film lots

The process is thorough and encompasses several key aspects:

1. Procurement and Preparation: Each slide is carefully selected and subjected to a careful cleaning process to preserve its original quality. This attention to detail ensures that the historical integrity of each image is maintained.

Both: Korea, Cheonan, Korean War, 8th US Army Soldier's. c1952

2. Digital Scanning: The slides are then digitised using high-resolution scanners, capturing every nuance and imperfection that tells a part of its story.

Left: Iceland Whale Hunt 1966

Right: New Guinea Mission 1970's

3. AI Rendering: Through the application of Stable Diffusion, slides are deliberately paired or randomly mixed. This allows for both targeted explorations of specific themes and serendipitous discoveries that emerge from unexpected combinations. The outputs are carefully edited, and the selections are then upscaled using various latent upscaling techniques using Flux checkpoints with custom fine-tuning.

Workstation. Full workflow cleaning, scanning, rendering

Example of two 35mm film scans that are style transferred into each other to create the final render

4. Continuous Exploration: Rendering is an ongoing activity. The AI operates throughout the day, producing a vast array of composite images that offer new perspectives and interpretations of the original photographs.

Ultimately, Empire is about photography and how closely tied we, as humans, are to images. Photography and semiotics are embedded in modern humanity in almost every way; it is the language that every human being in the world can intrinsically understand. The AI-generated compositions present a "new" empire that challenges traditional historical perspectives and encourages viewers to question the stories they've been told.