This exhibition was based on Will Lakeman’s memories and dreams of how he remembers Fort Regent from his childhood. In the 1990’s fort regent was nothing like how it was today, there was an aquarium, funfair, mini golf, concerts and many more.
During the exhibition, Will was very open and honest about his Autism and how many people who are autistic become fixated with things like birds or trains, however, he has an intense attachment to Fort Regent and although he hates crowds and unexpected noises, he loves swimming pools, funfairs and leisure centres.
Lakeman further played on nostalgia by placing different scents throughout the gallery. With one end of the exhibition having a outdoor woodland diffuser to re create the smell of the outdoor gardens and the other with a chlorine like smell to recreate the smell of the swimming pool. I believe this is a creative way to add onto nostalgia as many scents hold memories.
Throughout the exhibition, the photos show not just what the fort was like, it captures how Will remembers it in his dreams and hallucinations. Due to his synaesthesia, which is when one sense triggers another sense for example, associating different sounds with colours, or someone may see/ picture colours more vibrant than they actually are.
The image above was created using AI (artificial intelligence), however is based on a memory of fort regents swimming pool, as you had to walk in a foot bath before entering the pool and he remembers it as a vivid purple colour however, it was far from that. Not every image that is put into AI comes out perfect which makes unique, for example, one of the feet above has seven toes.
By using Artificial Intelligence Will has managed to turn a regular photo of how many people may see it and ‘recreate it to the way my mind jumbles things together to create memories’.
Before going to this exhibition, I wasn’t too sure on how AI could be used in photography as it is automatically programmed. However, hearing how Will uses it to adapt and enhance his images made me think differently. When I first initially viewed the exhibition I didn’t particularly like how AI was used as i thought it took away from the reality and truth behind each image. However, after reading and hearing about Will’s reasoning behind using artificial intelligence and how it is personalised to himself and how he remembers Fort Regent made me shift my opinion.
Overall, I really enjoyed the exhibition as I have never seen anything like it and i enjoyed how every image had its own memory and story behind it. I also thought it was very interesting to learn about the history of fort regent as it is a place where almost everyone on the island has been to however, it is no where near as exciting as it was back in the 90’s.