[E23] Taxonomy of Slop

​Landscape is pleased to present [E23] Taxonomy of Slop, an evening led by Ruby Justice Thelot in conversation with Daniel Keller and Duncan Wilson exploring how the material and computational forces shaping images have evolved—from physical constraints to algorithmic feedback loops to fully autonomous visual systems.

This is the second event in a two-part exploration of image culture. Where the first event, [E21] Escaping Peak Visuality, explored the exhaustion of images and the potential for exit through multi-sensory, embodied experiences, [E23] Taxonomy of Slop turns back toward the image itself.

​The forces acting on visual culture have always been material—governed by optics, networks, and optimization functions. The talk traces this arc from the camera to the feed to the synthetic image, arriving at a speculative endpoint: a hyper-real image environment no longer centered on human authorship or perception.

Join us as we examine what it means to produce and encounter images today.  

​Ruby Justice Thelot is a designer, artist & cyberethnographer based in New York City. He is a professor of design and media studies at NYU. His work focuses on digital phenomenology, virtual ontology and the implications of being-on-line. 



​A moderated discussion features:



​Daniel Keller is a “former artist,” internet theorist, writer, and entrepreneur who has exhibited internationally as a solo artist and as half of Aids-3D. He was formerly co-founder of New Models and Channel. He is currently an associate investor at ADIN, an agentic early-stage venture fund launched by Tribute Labs. He is the coiner of “sloptimism”, aka ‘the panglossian embrace of the total output of the attention economy.'

​Duncan Wilson is a team lead at Midjourney, a community-funded research lab focused on amplifying humanity’s potential. He has written articles and appeared on panels about automated imagery and its role in culture. His own artistic practice focuses on the boundary of low-cost generation and automated, technical manufacturing. 

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​ABOUT DOG

​​DOG is a dynamic project space exploring emergent cultural themes through an ongoing series of in-person events. An experimental, physical complement to its parent, Landscape, a brand strategy and design studio in San Francisco, CA, the events make tangible the studio’s commitment to nurturing our collective social fabric and supporting new ideas, technologies, and opportunities for cultural expression.

​​ABOUT LANDSCAPE

​​Landscape is an integrated creative studio providing brand strategy, design systems, and campaign production to clients pursuing intentional, sustainable, and influential change across a range of sectors—science, technology, social, environmental, arts, and culture.