36” x 12” Mixed Media - Acrylic, Metal Leaf, Paper and Ink on Wood Panel 2026
“I spent hours contemplating the concept ‘Analog’.
Again and again, my only thoughts continually drifted to a sense of melancholy, sadness, anger, confusion, fear and resistance. The bitterness in my heart is driven by a multitude of factors but above all else is the unrelenting march of AI’s presence into our world without much consent.
I often reflect on if I am just getting old and the progress of society and technological development starts to leave me behind. Though I pondered this as a teen, I always assured myself I would not resist technology like my parents and grandparents before me. I told myself I would keep up with the latest trends and developments as it improves our lives. Cool phones, capturing images, faster communications, emails, computers, games, all great advancements of my lifetime.
However, the present balance with technology feels different. AI feels different. I no longer look at technology with the same openness and excitement. The longing for a more analog way of life becomes apparent.
I could have made a piece that celebrated the analog way of life I once enjoyed. However, I could not bring myself to conceptualize such a piece. Bluntly the current weight and reality of the present moment, forms a tainted nostalgia.
I welcome you to explore this piece Sacrificing Analog. A raw and truthful exploration of my internal battle with AI’s presence in my life, the world around me and my artistic practice.
For those familiar with my work my connection to the mountains, the Canadian backcountry and nature are recurrent themes.
Periodically, I will incorporate metal leaf bars in my work that often represent light, hope, dreaming, and ethereal presence. In Sacrificing Analog a silver bar is hollowed out and covered in red soaked news articles, research pieces, expert opinion pieces, and government statements about AI.
The bar in silver is an attempt at staying positive and finding the silver lining. The chaos of the dialog within the bar commentates on the various reservations, potential positives, criticisms, and very real concerns arising from AI technologies non- consensual unleashing into the human experience. I am trying in my work to provide positivity per usual but the overall impression of AI is disruptive and has questionable value in light of its negative impacts on labour markets, safety, security, mental health, community health and the natural world arounds us. The bold presence of red reminds the viewer that living beings cannot be ignored while the details are debated. Blood runs in our veins as part of life-giving force and its color is used as a symbol for our humanity. We are not that of machines, data, and soulless form but of the living experience- part of the natural world-and we have no choice but to be mixed in with this manufactured chaos. With the unknowns, warnings, unregulated presence of AI in our lives we should engage mindfully and cautiously. Our humanity and environment should not be sacrificed in the process.
The use of paper symbolizes the desire to return to using analog methods. I am remined of a time when we were told the lie that digitization would save our trees and better the planet. Yet here we are witnessing the profound negative environmental impacts of AI and data centers on the general environment, minerals, resources, water systems, climate and communities. These concerns are becoming stark, urgent and undeniable.
I continue to attempt to paint my usual forms of mountains atop the confusion, discussion, research and commentary in the bar about AI. Using MT extra script the words “AI Slop” (AI Slop) are repeated, spilling over the snow-covered ground while a starless sky envelops the main themes off the work. As the font get larger there is a greater sense of urgency and warning coming toward the foreground. I am begging the viewer to reflect on the worth of AI generate material against the environmental strain and cost used to generate it -which at current volume and use tends to be mostly careless or unnecessary slop. The problem with this warning is that many viewers will be unable to decipher the font. This is much like our struggle to decipher AI generated material against that of human made especially in the creative space.
The only visible reflections in the sky of this piece are data test centers and satellites in space. Scars. Pollution of the earth, sky and light has now robbed humanity of natures splendor. Stars and planets once used by our ancestors for centuries to delight, guide and navigate humanity in times of darkness are now gone.
Is it all worth it?”
~Aimy Van der Linden
36” x 12” Mixed Media - Acrylic, Metal Leaf, Paper and Ink on Wood Panel 2026
“I spent hours contemplating the concept ‘Analog’.
Again and again, my only thoughts continually drifted to a sense of melancholy, sadness, anger, confusion, fear and resistance. The bitterness in my heart is driven by a multitude of factors but above all else is the unrelenting march of AI’s presence into our world without much consent.
I often reflect on if I am just getting old and the progress of society and technological development starts to leave me behind. Though I pondered this as a teen, I always assured myself I would not resist technology like my parents and grandparents before me. I told myself I would keep up with the latest trends and developments as it improves our lives. Cool phones, capturing images, faster communications, emails, computers, games, all great advancements of my lifetime.
However, the present balance with technology feels different. AI feels different. I no longer look at technology with the same openness and excitement. The longing for a more analog way of life becomes apparent.
I could have made a piece that celebrated the analog way of life I once enjoyed. However, I could not bring myself to conceptualize such a piece. Bluntly the current weight and reality of the present moment, forms a tainted nostalgia.
I welcome you to explore this piece Sacrificing Analog. A raw and truthful exploration of my internal battle with AI’s presence in my life, the world around me and my artistic practice.
For those familiar with my work my connection to the mountains, the Canadian backcountry and nature are recurrent themes.
Periodically, I will incorporate metal leaf bars in my work that often represent light, hope, dreaming, and ethereal presence. In Sacrificing Analog a silver bar is hollowed out and covered in red soaked news articles, research pieces, expert opinion pieces, and government statements about AI.
The bar in silver is an attempt at staying positive and finding the silver lining. The chaos of the dialog within the bar commentates on the various reservations, potential positives, criticisms, and very real concerns arising from AI technologies non- consensual unleashing into the human experience. I am trying in my work to provide positivity per usual but the overall impression of AI is disruptive and has questionable value in light of its negative impacts on labour markets, safety, security, mental health, community health and the natural world arounds us. The bold presence of red reminds the viewer that living beings cannot be ignored while the details are debated. Blood runs in our veins as part of life-giving force and its color is used as a symbol for our humanity. We are not that of machines, data, and soulless form but of the living experience- part of the natural world-and we have no choice but to be mixed in with this manufactured chaos. With the unknowns, warnings, unregulated presence of AI in our lives we should engage mindfully and cautiously. Our humanity and environment should not be sacrificed in the process.
The use of paper symbolizes the desire to return to using analog methods. I am remined of a time when we were told the lie that digitization would save our trees and better the planet. Yet here we are witnessing the profound negative environmental impacts of AI and data centers on the general environment, minerals, resources, water systems, climate and communities. These concerns are becoming stark, urgent and undeniable.
I continue to attempt to paint my usual forms of mountains atop the confusion, discussion, research and commentary in the bar about AI. Using MT extra script the words “AI Slop” (AI Slop) are repeated, spilling over the snow-covered ground while a starless sky envelops the main themes off the work. As the font get larger there is a greater sense of urgency and warning coming toward the foreground. I am begging the viewer to reflect on the worth of AI generate material against the environmental strain and cost used to generate it -which at current volume and use tends to be mostly careless or unnecessary slop. The problem with this warning is that many viewers will be unable to decipher the font. This is much like our struggle to decipher AI generated material against that of human made especially in the creative space.
The only visible reflections in the sky of this piece are data test centers and satellites in space. Scars. Pollution of the earth, sky and light has now robbed humanity of natures splendor. Stars and planets once used by our ancestors for centuries to delight, guide and navigate humanity in times of darkness are now gone.
Is it all worth it?”
~Aimy Van der Linden
