Once ubiquitous, the neon signs of the Hong Kong's streetscape are rapidly disappearing. Giant icons of the analogue era, they are quickly being dismantled and replaced with LEDs and other technologies. Using a variety of lenses, over 1000 images of these signs were captured and catalogued. Getting up close - and even inside - these iconic installations, the photographs convey the buzz of electricity and flicker of failing neon. Many of the signs in the catalogue have already been dismantled.

The project was then developed using a generative adversarial network (GAN) and model checkpoint previously trained on night photography to fine tune it on the supplied images. The resulting project bridges the gap between analogue and digital. The AI attempts to learn about the world as presented and, out of confusion comes clarity. Misunderstanding gives way to understanding. The images are recorded through the eye of a digital being as it gradually makes sense of an analogue world. The project creates new relationships between outdated technology and new emerging trends in AI augmented photography.

Artist: Mark Panckhurst / Ivona Tau Format: MPG4 Duration: 32 seconds Resolution: 1024 x 1024