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    "result": {"data":{"publication":{"title":"Q+A With Lauren Dunn","author":null,"featureImage":{"hotspot":null,"crop":null,"asset":{"_id":"image-fe7a26cf79d5757727caed58937a26589d3d2372-1333x1211-heif","altText":null,"description":null}},"_rawContent":[{"_key":"a22a32918b76","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"14fc120a981f","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Can you share more about your process in creating Portrait of a Cyborg—the technical to the thematic, and how you chose your subjects?"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"f702fc36dd13","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"9ce170abf45a0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Firstly, the work (Portrait of a Cyborg) is looking to understand the tensions between the human body and the technological systems that shape how we see and conceive ourselves. So my practice begins with evaluating the circulation of images online to identify cultural trends relating to conception of the self. I spend a lot of time observing and investigating how certain images mutate and accumulate meaning across media platforms like Instagram and viral news sites. As part of this research, I collect and archive these images, particularly paying attention to how bodies are framed, romanticised, and how technological enhancements intervene."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"2bf8f29cceaa","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"3b68b0e5a5460","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"From there the process becomes both conceptual and technical. I work with appropriated imagery (the stolen online image), digital editing, and printing processes to reframe images that already exist within popular culture. By representing them at various scales or in new contexts: such as the SS billboard, I try to create a moment where something familiar becomes slightly strange and destabilised."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"e42ad3b4779e","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"8e7b8a3894880","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"The bodies I choose are figures who influence or shape technology, media and self transformation. People of particular interest Kim Kardashian or Bryan Johnson are not just celebrities, they are symbols of a contemporary condition where the body is continuously modified or optimised, or what I like to refer to as "},{"_key":"8e7b8a3894881","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"mediated"},{"_key":"8e7b8a3894882","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" through technology. For me they function as a contemporary cyborg, figures whose identities are shaped by cosmetic procedures, biohacking, data tracking, and the constant circulation of their images online."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"e95e261edf69","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"28c0fa9dcabf","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":""}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"881511fad442","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"faad2eb4d85e","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"What do you think of today's pop culture climate, in how we engage and how it shapes our cultural conscience?"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"ca5621ec66ef","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"523bf6663a930","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Pop culture right now operates at a manic speed. This is mostly because images circulate globally within seconds, and algorithms continuously amplify the ones that generate the most engagement. Because of this, our cultural consciousness is shaped through repetition and what is visible."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"934059f45efb","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"b61a03ded09a0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"We often encounter the same types of bodies, aesthetics, and lifestyles again and again and again online. Over time these images start to feel normal, even inevitable. But many of these ideals are highly constructed, filtered, surgically enhanced and/or optimised through technology or performance."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"912d56ae14db","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"cd6bc65479720","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"I’m interested in how these images operate almost like cultural scripts. They shape how we imagine success, beauty, youth, productivity, even what a desirable life looks like. My work tries to slow that process down slightly by creating visual movement (the blur) to grab the viewers attention, asking them to question the image, to maybe even look at these images critically rather than just consuming them."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"ba43ae182af4","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"bead47710370","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":""}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"7cd38a812bd3","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"a607f6b0cabe","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Billboards are traditionally spaces of advertising and persuasion. What does it mean for you to insert critical artwork into a format designed to sell?"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"b57b97a03c26","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"5871b6f706e40","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"That tension is exactly what has drawn me to the SS Billboards. Billboards printed or LED are still one of the most visible forms of public media, usually used to sell products, lifestyles, or aspirations."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"8251c8388dbb","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"837de59bab230","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"By placing a critical artwork in that format, the billboard becomes something slightly different. Instead of delivering a clear commercial message, the image can become ambiguous or open ended. It may still resemble advertising visually, but it doesn’t function in quite the same way."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"9e5e984e0f8e","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"41c57ad9f4090","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"I’m interested in how that disruption, scale, spectacle can create a moment of reflection in everyday space. A billboard normally tells you what to want."},{"_key":"41c57ad9f4091","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"Portrait of a Cyborg"},{"_key":"41c57ad9f4092","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" instead asks you to question the perhaps familiar image or the bodies within it."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"535496f8c5c5","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"ac25e8f9ab0c","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":""}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"99bec87bb3c9","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"c29dc9463ca3","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Billboards are typically consumed in motion—glanced at from cars, scrolled past in digital form. How does this fleeting mode of viewing shape your thinking about attention and image saturation?"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"c0e041f79eec","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"e5eaa9a706e90","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"We live in a time of extreme visual saturation. Thousands of images move past us every day, mostly too quickly for us to consciously process them. Billboards participate in that same ecology of fleeting attention."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"38f8fef1e9d3","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"4c622bb9bd130","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"At The Substation, the billboards face the train tracks, so people encounter them in motion, passing by in a matter of seconds. That experience feels very similar to how we encounter images online scrolling past them, absorbing fragments rather than stopping to fully look."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"5497a05434f1","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"aa8ad10cfbaf0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"For me that raises interesting questions about visibility and memory. If images are consumed so quickly, what actually stays with us? What kinds of images become memorable, and why?"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"f0cfaa75716e","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"8362f02bc16c0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"The billboard format embraces that condition rather than resisting it. The work might only be seen briefly as the train moves past, but those few seconds can still leave a trace. In that sense it mirrors the way images function online, fleeting encounters that accumulate over time and quietly shape how we see the world."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"a562d4df773c","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"e40796b87008","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":""}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"55cf586d51ac","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"c885fc52c2a7","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"How do you think technology and popular culture drive our desires and impact our identities?"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"cefc9d4e7f94","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"1b235e52ed8b0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Technology and popular culture operate together as powerful systems of influence. Platforms, algorithms, and media industries continuously produce and circulate images that present certain ways of living as desirable."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"de77e9adc07e","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"3c66f33f1e380","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Over time these images don’t just reflect culture they actively shape it. They influence how we imagine our bodies, our lifestyles, our ambitions. The line between representation and aspiration becomes indistinguishable."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"b2a6261a8f77","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"7d8bb530ac9e0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"In that sense, this is what I am mostly curious about, I think identity today is increasingly mediated through images. We construct ourselves through profiles, selfies, metrics, and feedback loops of likes and engagement. My work is interested in questioning how those systems reshape the relationship between the body, the image, and the self."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"a66f00b81479","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"ad0d4ea95c4c0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":""}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"72b4b6357086","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"0afb3ab379fb0","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Anything else you'd like to share?"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"d9bcdc90476a","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"4dce1d15c1a80","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"While the work engages with critical ideas about technology, image culture, and desire, there is also a sense of play running through the billboards. Many of the images are intentionally subversive and queer. One image shows Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg kissing in a spa, another places Kim Kardashian on a beach in a pose reminiscent of a Caravaggio painting, and there is also a Balenciaga couture figure wearing what looks like a lampshade over their head. These gestures bring humour into the work. They draw the viewer in visually before the more critical questions begin to unfold."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"2417dda54008","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"d1b9dbe704370","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"That balance is important. The images operate within the visual language of fashion, advertising, and pop culture, but they also gently disrupt it. The humour, glamour, and slight absurdity invite people to look twice and reconsider the kinds of images that shape our ideas about bodies, identity, and desire."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"db069b877e74","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"e23e8e543d710","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"For me, "},{"_key":"e23e8e543d711","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"Portrait of a Cyborg"},{"_key":"e23e8e543d712","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" is ultimately about slowing down and paying attention to the images that surround us. We think of technology as something external, like devices, platforms, machines etc, but it also shapes how we imagine ourselves, it is within us."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"4ad9515db09b","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"2d3450e592370","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"The cyborg is a useful metaphor for thinking about that condition. It reminds me that the relationship between human and technological systems is intertwined. The images we consume, share, and internalise become part of how we understand our bodies and identities."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"dae6bca112dc","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"b2bc016e7e880","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"By placing these works in public space, I hope the project opens a small moment of reflection and curiosity within the chaos of everyday media."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"}],"images":[],"information":[],"related":[]}},"pageContext":{"ownerNodeId":"-0ea99f11-851b-5254-b4fe-c3fd36fe2c4c","slug":"q-a-with-lauren-dunn"}},
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