frontiers – m-magdalena.art

Framing Frontiers originates in an actual performance photograph that shows me as the artist holding a frame inscribed with the Fibonacci spiral, using it to draw and structure the surrounding landscape. Through AI-assisted intervention, I extended this scene by placing a symbolic Icarus figure that can also be interpreted as the young Leonardo da Vinci accompanied by one of his early flying machines on the opposing rock formation. The additional symbolic layer of Icarus and his mythical flight toward the sun introduces an allegory of human ambition, hope, and hubris—an enduring metaphor for the promises and dangers bound to technological invention. This deliberate anachronism transforms the image into a symbol of technological rupture—then and now—linking Renaissance visions of innovation with today’s algorithmic imagination. In this sense, Framing Frontiers seeks to visualise the persistent ambivalence that accompanies new human technologies: the tension between aspiration and risk, empowerment and loss of control.

The work reflects a broader context in which contemporary visual and performing artists are confronted with fundamentally altered production conditions and shifting modes of perception. AI is not approached here as a neutral tool, but as part of a wider convergence of technologies that profoundly reshape artistic practice and visual habits in the present. Against this backdrop, I critically examine the relevance of timeless geometric principles within an era of accelerated technological change.

Ultimately Framing Frontiers, addresses boundaries on multiple levels. On the one hand the personal ones I experience as an artist on the other hand the accelerating societal changes that go hand in hand with the implementation of AI. It aims to create a space of reflection—one that acknowledges both the historic disruptions created by human invention and its consequences for art production, image perception and everyday life. It is within the personal perception, technology, history, and imagination that my current artistic practice unfolds.