Director Biography – Adam Cole
Adam Cole is an American media artist working with film, installation, and AI technology to subvert the norms of traditional cinema. He is based in London, where he graduated with a master’s degree from the Creative Computing Institute, University of the Arts London. His work examines the complexity of intimacy and identity in the digital age, creating immersive and interactive experiences that project desire in the shadow of artificial representations. He probes these themes through various computational techniques including microprocessors, 3D rendering engines, and AI networks to craft works of experimental expanded cinema. Drawing on the history of images, Adam’s work extends a rich queer tradition of twisting popular media conventions to reveal unspoken double meanings.
Adam’s work has been exhibited internationally at galleries, film festivals, and academic conferences including the SXSW Film Festival, Sheffield DocFest Alternate Realities, Sonar+D Barcelona, and SIGGRAPH Arts. His most recent installation, Kiss/Crash, has been recognized by the Lumen Prize for Art and Technology, the Aesthetica Art Prize, and the Asia Digital Art Award.
Adam’s work has been exhibited internationally at galleries, film festivals, and academic conferences including the SXSW Film Festival, Sheffield DocFest Alternate Realities, Sonar+D Barcelona, and SIGGRAPH Arts. His most recent installation, Kiss/Crash, has been recognized by the Lumen Prize for Art and Technology, the Aesthetica Art Prize, and the Asia Digital Art Award.
Synopsis
What destruction is triggered by romance? What pleasure is there in a car crash?
Kiss/Crash is a provocative short film that uses AI-generated imagery to explore the theme of desire and the expanding gap between real experience and artificial representation in the digital age. Here, an AI repeatedly and lovingly translates a car crash into a kiss, increasing in intensity with every collision. The piece creates a compelling metaphor between two seemingly unrelated Hollywood images: the violent car crash and the romantic kiss. Drawing on a familiar cinematic language, this piece also connects AI imagery to a long history of image-production technologies meant to incite and homogenize our desires through artificial representations.
Kiss/Crash is a provocative short film that uses AI-generated imagery to explore the theme of desire and the expanding gap between real experience and artificial representation in the digital age. Here, an AI repeatedly and lovingly translates a car crash into a kiss, increasing in intensity with every collision. The piece creates a compelling metaphor between two seemingly unrelated Hollywood images: the violent car crash and the romantic kiss. Drawing on a familiar cinematic language, this piece also connects AI imagery to a long history of image-production technologies meant to incite and homogenize our desires through artificial representations.