Name: Pot(W)Holes: Talk by Dr Madeline Yale Preston | Artist's panel discussion
Start: 2025-11-02T14:30:00+00:00
End: 2025-11-02T16:00:00+00:00
Location: Empress Place

Pot(W)Holes: Talk by Dr Madeline Yale Preston | Artist's panel discussion

Join Dr Madeline Yale Preston at Empress Place, followed by a panel discussion with Ben Millar Cole and Duncan Petrie
About this Event

Pot(W)Holes with Dr Madeline Yale Preston

Long before 'AI' became a household term, artists were foraging on the frontiers of synthetic creativity. The genealogy is found in early montage, appropriation and digital manipulation. In this session, Preston asks, 'But what shifts now? Is it the practice itself or our relationship to it?' Technology accelerates the process, introduces elements of surprise and play. Concept becomes currency.
What if there’s another way to think about AI? As James Bridle asks: What if it’s purpose is to open our eyes and minds to the reality of intelligence as something doable in all kinds of fantastic ways, many of them beyond our own rational understanding?” This demands radical imagination.
Following her talk, Preston will be a conversation with artists Ben Millar Cole and Duncan Petrie as they wrestle with this new technology while navigating a disrupted art world – a time like no other, like a joy ride down a pothole laden B-road!

Dr Madeline Yale Preston Dr Madeline Yale Preston is a photography historian, curator, writer, editor and arts advisor. Committed to fostering artistic and curatorial growth, she mentors artists, curators and arts administrators in writing, editing, funding and professional development. She is a trustee for the Centre for British Photography and former executive director for the Houston Center for Photography. She holds a PhD from UAL Chelsea College of Art and Design (2021), where her research centred the ethical curation of so-called Middle Eastern photography. Much of Madeline’s recent work explores the constructed image.

This event is delivered by The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion, part of The Wrong Biennale 7th edition – the world's largest digital art celebration and a member of the International Biennial Association.

Taking its cue from the paradox at a doughnut's centre, The Doughnut (W)Hole brings together 14 international artists exploring how absences shape presence in our AI-driven age.

Artists: Maria Ahmed, Kasper Bergholt, Ben Millar Cole, Evangelia Danadaki, Sarah Deane, Sarah-Jane Field, Alan Knox, David Koh, Merve Kurtuluş, Duncan Petrie, Angel Qin, Heidi Reece, Sarah Sweeney, Min Jung Tsai.

Curated by Kim Shaw | Co-produced by Sarah-Jane Field

London Embassy: Hapax Living Room, 1–2 November 2025
Opening, artist talks, and panels with Dr Jane Boyer ([cloud] collective), Dr Caroline Molloy (School of Creative and Cultural Arts at UCA Farnham), Dr Madeline Yale Preston (British Centre of Photography), and delivering funding surgeries, Justin Hunt (Shifting Power, OU; Queen Mary's University).