REMEMBERING THE FUTURE

© Kris Davidson - Analog astronaut on EVA at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. © Kris Davidson - Image from the REMEMBERING THE FUTURE photography project © Kris Davidson - Analog astronaut simulating a medical emergency at the Mars Desert Research Station. View all images ↓
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  • Dates
    2023 - Ongoing
  • Author
  • Topics Editorial, Fine Art, Landscape, Portrait, Social Issues

Remembering the Future is a photographic series exploring time's fluidity by merging past, present, and future, using generative AI, Mars landscapes, and handmade collage. It questions identity, AI embodiment, and humanity's future.

If all time already exists, then so does the future. Remembering the Future is a photographic series engaging with the fluidity of time and memory. By collapsing the boundaries between past, present, and future, the work invites viewers to consider how we construct narratives about who we are and who we might become. It resides between reality and imagination, suggesting that memory is not merely a record of what has been but a speculative tool for navigating what will be.

Our fictions shape the future. The ongoing series includes work from my residency at the Mars Desert Research Station, where analog astronauts blend science with storytelling, sketching early outlines of humanity's interplanetary future. The first person to step on Mars could be a child today, their path shaped by these visionary narratives.

In this project I use generative AI and handmade collages to collapse time. I merge Mars-like landscapes with NASA images from real Mars and space, and I craft imaginary monuments to human stories carried to Mars.

To expand the project, I am currently “collaborating” with an animatronic humanoid robot to explore narratives around robotics, AI, genetic engineering, and the merging of humans and machines, while revisiting earlier hominid splits. In this work, I am finding that the boundaries of the self — of gender, and identity — become increasingly tenuous in a future world in which AI moves towards embodiment, a physicality likely to be characterized by extreme interchangeability.

As AI becomes embodied, it raises profound questions about what it means to be human in a world where machines are not just tools but companions in shaping our identities. This emerging physicality of AI challenges our sense of self and hints at a future where humanity's understanding of existence itself might evolve — redefining the contours of memory, identity, and the narratives that bind us across time.

Remembering the Future suggests that time is cyclical, with moments and stories continuously overlapping, with photographs serving as the scaffolding of memory. In this layered interplay of real and imagined recollections, Remembering the Future considers how we navigate the fluid boundaries of time and selfhood.