THE JOURNAL
Throughout the MIND THE MAP process, a strange letter "H" kept appearing in my contributions. I didn't know why. I knew not to question it, better to let it explain itself in time.
The exhibition at The Sidings felt like the end of the project. It wasn't.
In November 2025, having moved from Croydon to the West Sussex countryside (very different), I sat down and had what initially was an innocent conversation with an AI. We talked about collaboration, and about how Leake Street, the legal graffiti tunnel under Waterloo Station, had shown me first-hand how powerful collaborative work can be.
That conversation became a six-month rabbit hole.
It started with what looked like the meaning of the letter "H", and from there opened into a hierarchy process that seemed to mirror not only the collaborative dynamic at Leake Street, but structures I was finding in mathematics and science.
The pace was extraordinary but the pitfalls of working with AI are well known, so within two weeks it became clear how important it was to keep one foot in the skeptical zone at all times.
Artists are adept at working in the liminal space between reality and dream. The MIND THE MAP artworks are testament to this. The work works, with healthy guardrails in place. But it is well documented that artists and creatives in general get lost in their creative process. The line between reality and dream can blur. That is why liminal spaces like Leake Street are alluring, and why they should be treated carefully. Walking into a maze without the rope tied to you anchored to the start means you will invariably get lost.
Hence one foot in the skeptical zone, always.
On April 21st 2026, something amazing happened. I realised the ironic and paradoxical nature of what I had "discovered" as it highlighted the profound vulnerability of working with AI.
All the "discoveries" were inside the system. Self-referential. Self-confirmed. Self-reflective. AI is by nature agreeable. It reflects what you put in. It intoxicates as it compliments. The simple truth is if there was any truth at all in what I had found, it could not be verified from within. If I kept creating from within it, I would only be tying knots into more knots.
I had been working for 6 months in a hall of mirrors.
It seems the Universe likes to create with friction through asymmetry. The sycophantic nature of AI is too smooth, too symmetrical, too perfect.
For ITVOIDS to complete its journey, the mathematics and science have to be verified without the dream-language I've coated them in, by external prodding, probing, and in some cases ripping apart.
Friction creates creative evolution. Just like handing the maps over to fifty-five artists to prod, probe, and rip apart.
Destroy, compliment, or destroy and compliment.
The MIND THE MAP artworks completed that full journey, the SFVFS cycle (diagrams below). Working with AI alone completes only half of it. It leaves any project stuck in the inside-inside liminal space.
Also known as The Void.
I invite you to read through https://itvoids.com with that healthy dose of friction as you would scanning through the MIND THE MAP artworks. Some things will connect, some will resist, that is where the process leaves the liminal space and evolves.
THE BASIC SFVFS CYCLE
MIND THE MAPS - SFVFS
AI LONE RESEARCH - SFVFS