The more time I spent on social media, the more clearly I saw the parallel to the Borg’s “assimilation”. In the effort to create the newest and most successful art, viral video, or statement, everything started to look the same. It wasn’t that a hostile species was taking over—it was the need to fit in or copy the viral trend.

Distinctiveness was disappearing.

This led me down a path of wondering what things will look like in 100 years, now that AI has been introduced into our world. AI is a perfect representation of the Borg. It takes from everyone to create. It’s the great Everything computer. What happens if we upload all of our experiences and “moments” to this Everything computer? What will the outputs become? Will anything distinct ever be created again?

Process:

I wanted to utilize the great Everything computer, AI, to “create” with me—to replicate the Borg’s process.

I began by photographing the most intimate and recognizable human feature: the eye. Using a Canon 5D Mark IV and an MP-E 65mm macro lens, I photographed 8 family members—a small family “collective.”

Then, I isolated each iris in Photoshop and combined them into a single iris composite.

I fed that composite into an AI generator to “create” an eye as the AI Borg Collective might see it.

Next, I took those AI-generated eyes back into Photoshop and implanted additional photography into the pupils—family photos from trips and shared experiences. I also replaced the background to mimic a Borg Cube, the ship the Borg use for assimilation and combat.

To me, the final outcomes feel eerily haunting—like the Borg. Not quite human, but not fully machine.

I can’t help but wonder: Is resistance futile? Or is this simply the next evolution of existence?