Images that exist on the internet are many times removed from their original context. At the click of a button or tap of a finger, we can utilise search engines to engage with a flourishing cross-pollination of images from every conceivable moment of history and culture.
Cubomancy is an exhibition that uses game-like processes to recontextualise public domain images into arrangements that appear meaningful. Artist Charlie Donaldson trawls online image depositories such as Wikipedia, government image archives or Flickr accounts to accumulate a vast amount of freely-accessible images before constructing narratives based on how they can relate to one another.
Mapping and navigation play a crucial role in this process, as Donaldson charts the relationships between proliferated imagery, tracing unexpected connections and patterns that mirror how we traverse the digital landscape. In the words of the artist: “If we think of internet archives as dank dungeons, my practice is a means of dungeon mapping, platforming to navigate and make sense.”
Through rolling dice, ruling grid-patterns and shading squares according to a pre-determined “algorithm”, Cubomancy explores how the internet gamifies experience and exerts influence on how we perceive and process stories, visual narratives and information.
IMAGE: CHARLIE DONALSON, BROWSER SESSION, 2024 (DETAIL), DIGITAL FILE.
