{embed image: 'images/empty room.jpg', alt: 'An empty room with tables and chairs'}
Last week my dad visited me in a dream.
He was hale. Standing in a room full of people.
Laughing, talking, gesturing with his hands.
A year and a bit after his death.
A friend recently shared that when you've lost someone and are missing them, and you dream of them, they're letting you know they're ok.
They are home.
I like to think that.
I created this series of images starting early January 2023, uploading a photo of my dad and me, on his 84th birthday, playing with prompts in Midjourney.
This series is an imaginary travelogue.
[[Places he wished to return to.]] [[Places he had been.]] [[Places he will never go.]]
[[Begin.]]
{embed image: 'images/Salthill beach.jpg', alt: 'Man and woman on the shore'}
If he could have, he would have travelled one last time to Galway, to see his family. With decreased mobility due to Parkinsons, he couldn't make that voyage.
These conjourings imagine him in the places that he loved.
The [[small town]] he grew up in the West of Ireland.{embed image: 'images/Hobbiton.jpg', alt: 'Hobbiton'}
Playing with imaginary places. Hobbiton. Bag End. He visited here once.
Imagining him in [[other places.]]
A sense of intimacy, relationship that [[persists.]]
{embed image: 'images/Yellowstone.jpg', alt: 'Man and woman in Yellowstone National Park'}
Yellowstone National Park.
[after 2 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Waimea.jpg', alt: 'Man and woman in Waimea National Park'}
Waimea Canyon.
[continued]
[after 4 seconds]
The repetitions of identifiable elements acrue over time.
A sense of intimacy, relationship that [[persists.]]
[continued]{embed image: 'images/Hands.jpg', alt: 'Hands clasped.'}
Hands. I have a photo of our hands.
My hand holding his hand.
Light against the comforter. Bones sparrow thin.
[[Hands that held.|START]] {embed image: 'images/High Street.jpg', alt: 'Man and woman on the High Street'}
These streets I walked with my father as a young child.
I imagine us travelling to places and times. Unfettered by physics. By time.
[[Celebrating New Year together.]]{embed image: 'images/NewYearDublin.jpg', alt: 'New Years in a Dublin Pub 1950s'}
Slip back in time. 1950s. Dublin.
A New Year's celebration in an alternate time.
Through these early images I was fascinated with the tension between what emerged as constants and the variable elements, clothing, hairstyles, settings, changing with prompts of place and time.
[after 2 seconds]
The consistent elements Midjourney retained were the formal arrangements of our bodies, with variations. Modulations, never quite the same.
Not simulacra. Not photographs. Not copies of the original work of art.
[continued]
[after 4 seconds]
A visual fugue. Images eddying out from a single constant. Circling a seed.
A core. Modulations, never quite the same.
[continued]
[after 6 seconds]
The conjouring of an auratic presence, perhaps only visible to me.
I 'see' my dad and I don't see my dad.
These are not photographs.
[continued]
[after 8 seconds]
[[One leaning in to the other.]]
[continued]
[after 10 seconds]
[[One behind the other.]]
[continued]
[after 12 seconds]
[[One hand on a shoulder.]] [[Or an arm.]]
Hands remained a significant challenge. So many fingers...
[continued]{embed image: 'images/Lean.jpg', alt: 'Man and woman lean into each other'}
A sense of intimacy, relationship that [[persists.]]{embed image: 'images/Behind.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
In 1950s, the Brooklyn Bridge.
{embed image: 'images/Behind 2.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
In 1960s, Fellini's Rome.
A sense of intimacy, relationship that [[persists.|fantasy]]{embed image: 'images/Shoulder1.jpg', alt: 'Man and woman on lakeshore'}
A sense of intimacy, relationship that [[persists.]]{embed image: 'images/orientexpress.jpg', alt: 'Man and woman on a train'}
A sense of intimacy, relationship that [[persists.]]{embed image: 'images/Lavender.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
...persists across imagined places.
A relationship present in the photograph of my dad on his 80th birthday.
That photograph absent here. You see the traces.
I leaning in to his shoulder, our heads close, my arm around his shoulders.
Affective elements. Variations on a theme.
[after 2 seconds]
The presence and present held in that photo, that physical proximity inscribed in time, rare, tangible, together.
Its automated to return annually now in Facebook’s insistent ‘memories’.
A centrifugal return. The ellipse of our relationship marked by a date.
[continued]
[after 4 seconds]
The aura of that photo disseminated in Midjourney's infinite eddies.
One catches me off guard. [[As if...]]
[continued]{embed image: 'images/Canoe1.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman in a canoe'}
This one.
Not true. Yet, an essence.
An essence that [[persists.|In memorium]]{embed image: 'images/Autumn1.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
...persists across imagined places.
[after 2 seconds]
A relationship present in the photograph of my dad on his 80th birthday.
That photograph absent here. You see the traces.
I leaning in to his shoulder, our heads close, my arm around his shoulders.
[continued]
[after 4 seconds]
The presence and present held in that photo, that physical proximity inscribed in time, rare, tangible, together.
Its automated to return annually now in Facebook’s insistent ‘memories’.
A centrifugal return. The ellipse of our relationship marked by a date.
[continued]
[after 6 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Autumn.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
The aura of that photo disseminated in Midjourney's [[infinite rhizomatic eddies.]]
[[In memorium.]]
[continued]
{embed image: 'images/Wes 1.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[after 2 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Wes 2.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[continued]
[after 4 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Wes 3.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[continued]
[after 6 seconds]
[[In memorium|Cthulu]]
[continued]
{embed image: 'images/Cthulu 1.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[after 2 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Cthulu 2.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[continued]
[after 4 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Cthulu d.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[continued]
[after 6 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Cthulu 4.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[[May his memory be eternal.|Visitors.]]
[continued]{embed image: 'images/Prom.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
...persists across imagined places.
[after 2 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Vista2.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
A relationship present in the photograph of my dad on his 80th birthday.
[continued]
[after 4 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/vista.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
That photograph absent here. You see the traces.
[continued]
[after 6 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Victorian.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
I leaning in to his shoulder, our heads close, my arm around his shoulders.
[continued]
[after 8 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Bridge.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
The presence and present held in that photo, that physical proximity inscribed in time, rare, tangible, together.
[continued]
[after 10 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Forum.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
Its automated to return annually now in Facebook’s insistent ‘memories’.
[continued]
[after 12 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Sherlock.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
A centrifugal return. The ellipse of our relationship marked by a date.
[continued]
[after 14 seconds]
[[The passing.|Begin.]]
[continued]{embed image: 'images/Balloon.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
...persisting across other places.
[after 2 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/tourist.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
A relationship present in the photograph of my dad on his 80th birthday.
[continued]
[after 4 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Chicago.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
That photograph absent here. You see the traces.
[continued]
[after 6 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Lincoln.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
I leaning in to his shoulder, our heads close, my arm around his shoulders.
[continued]
[after 8 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/london.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
The presence and present held in that photo, that physical proximity inscribed in time, rare, tangible, together.
[continued]
[after 10 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Venice.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
Its automated to return annually now in Facebook’s insistent ‘memories’.
[continued]
[after 12 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/moon.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
A centrifugal return. The ellipse of our relationship marked by a date.
[continued]
[after 14 seconds]
[[The passing.|Begin.]]
[continued]{embed image: 'images/Cthulu L1.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
Even across fantasy worlds.
[after 2 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Cthulu L2.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[continued]
[after 4 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Cthulu L3.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[continued]
[after 6 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Cthulu Lj.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[[Traces persist.|persists.]]
[continued]{embed image: 'images/Cthulu sq2.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
Our family varies.
[after 2 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Cthulu sq4.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[continued]
Form mutates. Affective elements expressed in gestures. Formal configurations.
[after 4 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Cthulu sq3.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[continued]
Infinite play.
[after 6 seconds]
{embed image: 'images/Cthulu sq1.jpg', alt: 'Man and a woman'}
[[May his memory be eternal.|Begin.]]
[continued]