“The Real and the Unreal” special exhibition for September in Dunblane Museum’s Goddard Gallery is by artist/prompt engineer, and former journalist, Ann Shaw.
Artist statement – Ann Shaw:
“I came into the art world late after a career in journalism. (Glasgow Herald followed by Glasgow School of Art and the School of the Art Institute in Chicago). This allowed me to combine my interest in writing, technology and art.
Today I work with a new tool, artificial intelligence, which lets me generate images from text, or prompts. This reflects my interest in the profound technological changes that society is undergoing, which is changing the way we live, interact with each other and questions what it means to be human.”
We live in a complex world where it’s difficult sometimes to tell the difference between reality and illusion, truth and lies.
With virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and digital environments, the boundaries – between real and unreal are increasingly blurred.
The rise of fake news, misinformation, and altered images on social media challenges our ability – to discern truth from falsehood.
Social media platforms like Facebook, lnstagram and TikTok, allows us to curate our identities and present idealized versions of ourselves. This leads to a disconnect between our online persona (often unreal) and our actual life impacting mental health, self-esteem, and social interactions.
Philosophical Inquiry. In a world saturated with information and technology, philosophical questions about existence, consciousness, and the nature of reality gain renewed importance. We no longer know – what it means to be “real” in a society where digital experiences can feel just as significant as physical ones.