Imaginary Friends, 2024, photobooth. Installation view at The Illuminarium, Toronto. June 20–27, 2024.
Imaginary Friends (2024)
This photobooth does not take pictures. It produces an imagined moment.
The booth captures the sitter’s picture and pairs it with a random AI simulacrum – an imaginary friend. The result is photographic evidence of a fictional event.
Since what happens inside the photobooth doesn’t actually happen, it may not happen as expected. At present, the AI is eccentric. It has its own ideas about what reality looks like. This project is meant to exist somewhere between the unreal and the real.
This installation was first staged in Toronto at the Illuminarium for one week, June 20-27. Over 2000 (human) people went through the booth.
This project was graciously sponsored by Intel, and produced by Dan Berzen at Mosaic North America. Programming was done by Dré Labre and the Department of Never.
First image: the snapshot captured by the photobooth camera; Second image: the paper printout produced by the photobooth and given to the participant to take home
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