Aftermath 2094: Luke Watters
What is your work about?
The artwork revolves around the fictional character Galatea, living in a fictional parody of our own world. She began as an artificial intelligence created to be your best friend and through the help of the goddess Aphrodite, was brought to life. Galatea mimics reality and is influenced by current trends such as Instagram, Netflix and music.
What are you trying to communicate?
Through Galatea the artist is able to reflect current society, its indulgence in technology and how people rely on it to connect with each other. In recent years tangible physical formats of music, TV and films have been converted to streamed formats. Galatea portrays the ideals that contemporary society projects onto people and is arguably more ‘real’ than many ‘fake’ social media influencers, musicians and celebrities. Galatea is almost a parody or caricature of this aspect of contemporary popular culture. However, there is far more to Galatea than this as I have designed her to be fun and appealing to all ages, with a truth and honesty about her.
Does your work link to, or are you inspired by any aspect of Our Silver City, 2094?
Taking Inspiration from the exhibition and novella, I was able to abstract the idea of a futuristic setting and place to situate Galatea. The setting for Galatea is 2094 where she is preparing to perform her first pop tour.
Describe your process of developing your work from ideas, through planning, to experiments and production.
From the beginning, the development of Galatea has been through many transitions from being only an augmented reality head, to a blue doll. She is always evolving and changing from originally being sculpted digitally and puppeted by hand, to being controlled by motion capture, I am constantly experimenting with how she is portrayed. Through this artwork I developed multiple new skills in computer programs from 3-D clothing design, to create her virtual stage costumes and merchandise. I constantly push the boundaries to move Galatea forward with the times and technology.
What does it mean to you to make this work?
I have a close connection to Galatea - an extension of myself, like a superhero and his alter ego, like Kara Kent who becomes Supergirl. I hope visitors view the artwork and have fun and for a brief time, enjoy Galatea. She may be vain and blunt, but her heart is honest.