Worm(W)Holes: Talk by Dr Jane Boyer | Roundtable led by Gisela Torres

The Doughnut (W)Hole PavilionWhat shapes our digital worlds more: what's present, or what's missing?Join us for The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion, part of The Wrong Biennale's 7th edition – the world's largest celebration of digital art, reaching millions globally and a member of the International Biennial Association.Taking its cue from the paradox at the centre of a doughnut – the presence of an absence – this pavilion brings together 14 international artists exploring how holes shape wholes, how what is missing becomes as meaningful as what is present.Why does absence matter in the age of AI?Machine learning models appear as overwhelming wholes, yet they're built from fragments, gaps, and exclusions. In the words of philosopher Yuk Hui, technology is now the substrate of our social, economic, political, and aesthetic lives. And as such, The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion asks: what role does absence play in constructing the digital images, texts, and worlds we increasingly inhabit?The ArtistsExperience works spanning photography, moving image, sound, games, and generative installation by: 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, and Min Jung Tsai.London Embassy Weekend: 1–2 November 2025Hapax Living Room hosts an in-person "embassy" featuring:Exhibition openingArtist talksPanel discussions 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 Justin Hunt (Shifting Power, OU; St Mary's University)A commissioned essay by artist and writer Sarah-Jane Field and a publication edited by the artists' cohort will extend the dialogue beyond the exhibition.Curated by Kim Shaw | Co-produced by Sarah-Jane FieldBy attending to holes as much as wholes, The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion invites you to encounter absence not as loss, but as a generative force—an opening into other ways of seeing and making.

The Doughnut(W)Hole

Worm(W)Holes led by Dr Jane Boyer and Gisela Torres with Maria Ahmed, Sarah-Jane Field and Sarah Sweeney

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Wormholes: The image (of the image of the human) in crisisThe Talk‘Finitude is the most capacious and enabling of the attributes we share with others, because unlike the particular way in which each of us looks, thinks, walks, and speaks, that connects us to a few other beings, it connects us to every other being. Since finitude marks the point where we end and others begin, spatially and temporally, it is also what makes room for them—and acknowledging these limits allows us to experience the expansiveness for which we yearn, because it gives us a powerful sense of our emplacement within a larger Whole’ (Silverman, 2009:4).Does AI deprive us of this sense of finitude? Is it frightening in part because we no longer see the end to ourselves, but a terrifying mash of undifferentiated state of sameness? As sentient beings who value their individuality and see the individuality in other living beings, it is inconceivable not to be distinct. Photography has had a role in how we visualise our thoughts on finitude, differentiation, and so many other concepts of being human, but is that role changing with AI image production? My talk will be a meditation on Kaja Silverman’s statement above, because I believe this is the crux of the question in The Doughnut (W)Hole, and in the wider existential crisis of photography.Dr Jane Boyer, Co-Director of [cloud], presents on the image in crisis and how this moment of disruption ushers in a new understanding of the image in contemporary art.The ConversationFollowing the talk, join a conversation with artists whose work explores these themes. Appropriately holey – or wholey – we're calling this group of work 'Wormholes'.In the quantum world, a wormhole is a theoretical possibility where a black hole tunnels into a white hole. The black hole pulls in, absorbs, swallows – not unlike how we think of AI: a data-scraping, regurgitative model of non- or pseudo-creation. The white hole, however, is regarded as a 'source', an expeller of energy. As Carlo Rovelli puts it, 'the white hole provides a way out of the black hole and back into the universe'.Our Wormhole artists, in pushing the image to extremes, are striving to find the white hole potential of this technology. Often, their work disrupts our common understanding of the image – the photograph itself seems to disappear altogether.Roundtable includes Maria Ahmed, Sarah-Jane Field and Sarah SweeneyDr Jane Boyer is an independent lens-based artist, curator, academic researcher and publisher. She is co-director of [cloud] collective with Dr Gemma Marmalade. Jane’s practise and research is concerned with the recurring influences of the past that are at work in our present actions. She completed a Fine Art PhD at Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University in 2021. She exhibits and publishes internationally. Jane works between the UK and France.Gisela Torres is a London-based multidisciplinary artist and arts educator. Trained as a photographer and filmmaker, her practice explores the interplay between traditional and emerging art forms, depicting personal narratives where the familiar, mysterious, and otherworldly co-exist. Through still and moving images, self-portraiture, performance, printmaking, sculpture, and new technologies, she creates contemplative and reflective landscapes with atmospheric and playful intention. Her work is anchored in the process of making, manifesting the transference of the psyche and juxtaposing the material with the immaterial. As a freelance arts educator, she delivers talks and workshops on exhibitions, visual literacy, and photography to diverse communities.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 FieldLondon 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).

1) Dr Jane Boyer 2) Gisela Torres

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Worm(W)Holes: Talk by Dr Jane Boyer | Roundtable led by Gisela Torres

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