Where You Lived, And What You Lived For
BY ALBERT STEN
“Where You Lived, And What You Lived For“ reanimates historical forestry images from SLU’s archive using generative AI, transforming static visuals into dynamic narratives. Accompanied by an AI-generated voiceover inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, the work reflects on our evolving relationship with nature amidst technological and environmental change.
By blending archival materials like microscopic images of fungi, insects, and wood fibres with AI-generated landscapes and Google Earth footage, the piece challenges boundaries between the natural and artificial. It resurrects forgotten images through “anti-photography,” highlighting global environmental degradation. Thoreau’s reflections on nature’s resilience offer a counterpoint to today’s fragility, urging viewers to reimagine how human and non-human agents might collaborate for a sustainable future.
ABOUT ALBERT
Albert Sten (b.1995) is a Stockholm-based photographer and artist whose work blends diverse media—photography, video, sound, archives, and AI-generated content. His work explores the convergence of technologies, examining their non-human elements and their impact on personal and collective memory. His art challenges conventional distinctions between natural and artificial, documentary and fictional, inviting viewers to reconsider these boundaries. Albert Sten holds a bachelor’s degree in photography from HDK-Valand at the University of Gothenburg, a degree in curatorial studies from Stockholm University, and is currently pursuing studies in Artificial Intelligence and Societies at the Media University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. In 2022, he was the resident artist at the Sune Jonsson Center for Documentary Photography at the Västerbotten Museum in Umeå. He has exhibited both in Sweden and internationally and has received several grants for his artistic practice.