Carola Lampe – Tell Me What To See

AI, algorithms, and digital technologies already shape a large part of everyday life – mostly without us noticing. Photographer and artist Carola Lampe has been exploring this development in her work for years. Her project _Tell Me What To See_ presses reality and artificiality so close together that the line between them blurs. "I wanted to put reality and artificiality in direct tension and show how these shifts happen: in perception, in the social fabric, in the cityscape, in working life, perhaps in cognitive processes as well.'' _– Carola Lampe_ Her working process was as hands-on as it was conceptual: First, she went out into the streets to capture images in the style of classic street photography that visually support the project's theoretical foundation. In the second step, she staged carefully composed scenes in her studio that deliberately pose the question: Is this still photographed reality or already computer-generated fiction? The third layer of her process was experimental in nature: She created AI-generated images, screenshots of 3D environments, as well as image manipulations using Photoshop and other AI tools. As a software developer, she consciously used the camera – a traditional, almost analog tool – to create images that appear machine-made. This ambiguity is no coincidence, but rather a central part of her artistic strategy. "Our relationship to truth is already shifting. Images, voices and videos can no longer be taken at face value. And Digital media are fundamentally reshaping our perception of reality." _– Carola Lampe_ The exhibition invites you to engage in a game with your own perception. While some images can be recognized as computer-generated upon closer inspection, it is not so obvious with others. And that is entirely intentional: "And that's by design: you're standing in front of something, simply not knowing what you're looking at." _– Carola Lampe_