AEROGRAMME PROJECT

A slow travel, low carbon footprint project done with AI inspiration.

As the world melted, I realised with remorse the global impact of her wanderlust years. I swore off aviation and pledged to use only public transport forever more. My world shrunk. So did my textile projects……to postcard or aerogramme size, perfect for the long hours spent bumping along on public transport.

Postcards and aerogrammes are miniature worm holes into foreign worlds, so too are my postcards/aerogrammes. Designed with AI’s assistance, this embroidered postcards/ aerogrammes, inspired by the embroidered postcards of Spanish dancers my parents sent to me from abroad when I was a child, show AI’s version of my proposed holiday destination. It is not until I reach that destination that I realise how wrong ….and foreign the AI ’s image is. Frequently the image on the aerogramme is from a none existent world.

This project is a micro project about two massive subjects. Quietly, it’s performative, working on an inter-personal level as strangers ask me about what I’m making. We talk about the weather…which inevitably leads to discussing climate change. We talk about how to get from A to B and how AI sometimes thinks A is B. We puzzle over the whacky AI generated images on my aerogrammes and discuss AI’s fuzziness with truth and where humanity is heading and the dangers of reality being lost or abused. The project’s humour circumnavigates climate fatigue, engaging people to feel empowered at lessening climate change through personal actions.

PROJECT RULES

Choose destination.
Ask AI to generate an image of the destination. (generally hilarious…..never accurate)
Paint a facsimile aerogramme on linen using that image.
Embroider aerogramme whilst travelling via public transport to the destination.
Engage with people who ask about what I’m doing. Explain why.
Photograph destination on arrival and compare to AI’s image.
Document the aerogramme’s development and my journey in a zine/book.
Always know when things go wrong, that’s the story.