AI: Artificial Intelligence, Wells, Somerset. Photo by Stephen Riley

Art & Artificial Intelligence in Somerset

Things you see...
Wells is one of my favourite places. For me, spending time there always induces a sense of serenity. Sitting on the grass and gazing at a cathedral nearly 1000 years old in its most ancient parts helps put your life into perspective.

When I was last there, a few days ago, and allowing my mind to drift, I thought of another of my favourite places: Langenargen in Germany. Basking on the shore of Lake Constance, it has that same quality of seeming somehow to stand outside of time, or at least the experience of time as it is in most other places.

I have photographed parts of Wells – mostly the cathedral – many times. You can see some of those shots on my photography website. They record, depict and express my pleasure in the place, and no doubt further mythologise a much-mythologised thing. This site is to do with ‘art’ and whereas by that I tend to mean ‘painting’, I also see this as a locus for thinking aloud and bumbling through ideas without prejudice; without worrying whether they go anywhere or not, because, as we all know, doing that can lead to ideas you didn’t know you were going to have. So this is a photograph, taken in Wells, of not very much, but it says ‘AI’, if you want to see it that way: AI: Artificial Intelligence – geddit?