Michael Neff's Rules of the Game explores familiarity turned askew. The series delves into the typology of fields, courts, and tracks, capturing them from an overhead perspective reminiscent of satellite imagery or drone photography. What initially passes as documentary photography, unravels into an uncanny realm, where the seemingly mundane transforms into the surreal. Lines on familiar fields become too abundant, key equipment is misplaced, roads lead to nowhere, shadows that appear natural lack any tangible source, and perspectives skew like reflections in a warped mirror.
The result provokes questioning the familiar—what are these altered sports called, and by what rules are they governed? Is a racetrack a racetrack if you can’t drive a car around it? Are these mere imitations, akin to Canal Street knock-offs, or perhaps the misinterpretations of a game of telephone, reminiscent of Dürer's rhinoceros? Beneath the surface, it becomes evident that these anomalies are not products of camera tricks, but the outcomes of AI image generation, governed by blackbox rulesets that use observations of relationships to mimic reality, but ultimately fail under human scrutiny.
Much of recent AI-generated imagery strives for (and often achieves) verisimilitude with documentary photography, or indulges in hyperrealism. Neff's approach diverges. Rather than striving for accuracy, his work hones in on the threshold just before these models achieve photorealism. In doing so, Neff offers an underlying commentary on the impending era of ubiquitous deep fakes, inviting viewers to contemplate the fragility of perception in an age of digital manipulation.
Neff's commitment to a singular, overhead perspective invites deeper exploration into the critical nuances that shape sport gameplay, and comparative analysis amongst the ways that generative Al systems get them wrong, despite their convincing attempts at accuracy. While subtle, the made-up rules of these near-real games unveil small joys for those that play, and small victories for those who think the games are already silly.
Prints: Collectors can purchase a C-print of the pieces they own at 12 x 12 in. or 20 x 20 in by contacting the artist on X. The prints are available unsigned, and with a certificate of authenticity issued by the artist.