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New St Andrews Botanic Garden artist-in-residence explores AI-generated botanical images

Emma Varley's work will be screened in a new Bioscope pavilion.

Emma Varley, St Andrews Botanic Garden artist in residence. Image: Fife Contemporary
Emma Varley, St Andrews Botanic Garden artist in residence. Image: Fife Contemporary

A new artist in residence at St Andrews Botanic Garden is exploring artificial intelligence (AI) generated botanical images.

Arts organisation Fife Contemporary have announced a new partnership with St Andrews Botanic Garden, which is enabling Dumfries-based visual artist Emma Varley to work within the gardens to create new work using film and digitally generated pictures.

After a nationwide call for applications, Emma was selected to be the newly appointed artist in residence.

Evolution and cultivation

She was chosen for her innovative explorations of AI technology to create images of plants, and her interest in asking questions about what AI means for our understanding of what is natural and what is synthetic.

She likens generating AI illustrations to the process of evolution and cultivation of visual forms.

Hanging Gardens by Emma Varley, St Andrews Botanic Garden artist in residence. Image: Fife Contemporary

The residency is enabling the artist to work with another innovative project being produced at St Andrews Botanic Garden.

Her work will be screened in a new Bioscope pavilion being developed on site.

Designed and built by Marcos Cruz and Brenda Parker from the Bartlett School of Architecture, the Bioscope tests the limits of designing with nature, using engineered living materials to make a building for projections and screenings that is alive with microscopic biodiversity.

Fertile Pods by Emma Varley, St Andrews Botanic Garden artist in residence. Image: Fife Contemporary

As a resident artist, Varley will also be able to engage with this and other research work being undertaken at the gardens to explore the ecology, biodiversity and conservation of temperate habitats.

Seeing nature in different light

Harry Watkins, director of St Andrews Botanic Garden, said: “Emma’s innovative approaches help us see nature in a different light, responding to the materials in the Bioscope botanical diversity in the garden and finding new insights about how we can understand what’s otherwise hard to see.

“We’re excited about the artist in residence partnership between Fife Contemporary and St Andrews Botanic Garden being a platform for people to test and engage with unique, thought-provoking experiences.”

Contained by Emma Varley, St Andrews Botanic Garden artist in residence. Image: Fife Contemporary

Fife Contemporary director, Kate Grenyer, said: “AI has suddenly become a very active topic in the world of visual art, design and particularly digital illustration and craft.

“Emma is embracing the possibilities for illustrators created by this new and fast progressing technology.

“Having time to work in St Andrews Botanic Garden will allow her to expand on her theme of how images are both constructed and experienced in relation to how we construct and experience nature.

Glass Heart by Emma Varley, St Andrews Botanic Garden artist in residence. Image: Fife Contemporary

“I’m delighted that Fife Contemporary are able to put this partnership together.”

Plans for screening

Emma Varley’s term as artist in residence at St Andrews Botanic Garden runs until March 31.

A screening of her work will take place in the Bioscope pavilion at the end of the residency.

To find out more about Emma Varley’s work go to elvarley.wordpress.com/

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