BLANK SPACES #3

BLANK SPACES by Margaret Murphy is a series of 13 AI-generated images reflecting on the role of the diary against the backdrop of current evolving technologies.

"If you could go back and read your teenage diaries would you?"

Diaries act as snapshots of thoughts and feelings we’ve likely forgotten, sometimes down to the exact hour and minute of a day. A diary is a portal, a subjective and personal account of events with corresponding emotional responses.

These narratives are records of our past selves, evolving into versions of us. We look back on these archives with fondness, sympathy, or embarrassment. Most times, we are grateful no one can read them but us.

"From a young age, I was encouraged to express my thoughts and feelings through the written word in a diary. A blessing and a curse, the result is a level of self-awareness that can sometimes feel suffocating. Pink sparkles and rainbow stickers went hand in hand with feelings of being left out by friends, first heartbreaks, and body insecurity. 

The dichotomy of fond and painful nostalgia is familiar to most women and symbolic of the feminine experience."

— Margaret Murphy

What now may we preserve about ourselves in this moment of AI? The way we prompt, select outputs, and more. Midjourney archives are a visual diary, but instead of chronicling daily life and feelings, they provide a timeline of both the artist and the AI’s evolution and development.