Landscape is pleased to present [E23] Taxonomy of Slop, an evening led by Ruby Justice Thelot in conversation with Daniel Keller and Duncan Wilson exploring how the material and computational forces shaping images have evolved—from physical constraints to algorithmic feedback loops to fully autonomous visual systems.
This is the second event in a two-part exploration of image culture. Where the first event, [E21] Escaping Peak Visuality, explored the exhaustion of images and the potential for exit through multi-sensory, embodied experiences, [E23] Taxonomy of Slop turns back toward the image itself. The forces acting on visual culture have always been material—governed by optics, networks, and optimization functions. The talk traces this arc from the camera to the feed to the synthetic image, arriving at a speculative endpoint: a hyper-real image environment no longer centered on human authorship or perception.
Join us for an evening examining what it means to produce and encounter images today.
Ruby Justice Thelot is a designer, artist, and cyberethnographer based in New York City. He is a professor of design and media studies at NYU. His work focuses on digital phenomenology, virtual ontology and the implications of being-on-line.
A moderated discussion features:
Daniel Keller is a “former artist,” internet theorist, writer, and entrepreneur who has exhibited internationally as a solo artist and as half of Aids-3D. He was formerly co-founder of New Models and Channel. He is currently an associate investor at ADIN, an agentic early-stage venture fund launched by Tribute Labs. He is the coiner of “sloptimism”, aka ‘the panglossian embrace of the total output of the attention economy’
Duncan Wilson is a team lead at Midjourney, a community-funded research lab focused on amplifying humanity’s potential. He has written articles and appeared on panels about automated imagery and its role in culture. His own artistic practice focuses on the boundary of low-cost generation and automated, technical manufacturing.
****RSVP HERE****
6pm: Doors open
6:30pm: Presentations & Discussion
Address: 428 Waller Street, San Francisco, CA
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ABOUT DOG
DOG is a dynamic project space exploring emergent cultural themes through an ongoing series of in-person events. An experimental, physical complement to its parent, Landscape, a brand strategy and design studio in San Francisco, CA, the events make tangible the studio’s commitment to nurturing our collective social fabric and supporting new ideas, technologies, and opportunities for cultural expression.
ABOUT LANDSCAPE
Landscape is an integrated creative studio providing brand strategy, design systems, and campaign production to clients pursuing intentional, sustainable, and influential change across a range of sectors—science, technology, social, environmental, arts, and culture.
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ACCESSIBILITY
Please note there is one flight of stairs leading up to the entrance of the venue. There are accessible toilets. For any questions regarding access to our space, please reach out via dog@dogdogdog.xyz.
PRIVACY
We’re mindful of privacy rights and would like you to know that at some events, we intend to capture the event with photographs—at times, flash will be used. Some of these images will likely be shared with our community online, on social media and our website. If you wish for your image not to be used, please reach out to us at the event or via email.
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