S5, E4 Geoff Titley | Digital media artist and photographer

In this episode, we speak with digital media artist and photographer Geoff Titley, whose thought-provoking work explores speculative landscapes and the shifting interplay between nature and technology. Blending digital photography, moving image, and 3D printing, Geoff imagines “other nature” — a futuristic vision of the natural world transformed through digital mediation.

Through object scanning, manipulation, and screen-based media, his layered artworks blur the line between organic and artificial, inviting us to question what is real, imagined, or digitally constructed. The conversation also touches on exploring the role of artificial intelligence in shaping artistic practice.

This episode offers a reflective journey into ambiguity, perception, and the future of environmental art.

Recorded on 13 August 2025, 

Discover more: geofftitley.com
Instagram: @geofftitley

Podcast details:
Podcast email: artiststalespodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.artiststales.net
Instagram: @artists_tales_podcast
Threads: @artists_tales_podcast

Transcript

Welcome to Artist Tales, the podcast that features and celebrates artists from different walks of life. I'm your host, Heather Martin, and in this episode with challenging perception and expanding our sense of what's possible of digital media with artist and photographer Geoff Titley. Geoff’s work invites us to rethink nature.

Not as it is, but as it could become through digital photography, moving image, and 3D printing. He explores an assumptive view of nature, a concept where landscapes and life forms blur between the organic. The artificial, his layered screen-based compositions ask viewers to look again through the lens of technology and transformation.

Welcome Geoff. Thank you, Heather. I'm very pleased to be here and thank you for inviting me to Artist Tales. Thanks for being a guest. Um, I'm really, you know, quite happy to have you as a guest to start off this, uh, episode. Could you tell us a bit more about yourself and how you got into digital photography and moving image in 3D printing?

Certainly Heather. I'm originally from Australia and I was born in a, a town called Charters Towers in, in North Queensland. And I, I came to, to London to, to sort of, as part of my, uh, one of my various career paths, and this was to do with music. I was performing and playing music back then and, um, London was the place to be.

But since then I've had other career paths and one of them was, was to do with digital data analysis and delivery of, uh, large platforms for it. Platforms for delivery and analysis of data and quite a few, well, a few years ago now, I embarked on this career path of digital art and this was, this began, I guess, um, although it was a continuation to some extent, so I could say it was boosted.

By a commitment to study, uh, for an MA photography. So it took a couple of years to get into the, into the zone of photography through doing this ma And uh, it was a fantastic opportunity and it was an interesting time. This was around two, 2011. There was a very exciting of festival that year with a lot of digital art.

That was very inspiring for me. And also during the course, I, I remember watching a, an interview with Fred Richen, or, or a, um, presentation by Fred Richen, a professor of photography from New York. This was at the foam convention at the foam gallery of photography in Amsterdam. And, and he said that, um, you know, that what we see with digital photography is that it's probably got, we'll probably find that it has nothing to do with photography at all.

And I found that really fascinating comment. But 'cause he comes from a very documentary photography area, but I immediately seized on it as a kind of, and I'm sure he meant it generally, but he was particularly, he's particularly interested in documentary photography and I fully understood his approach when talking about that.

But, um, I was fascinated by the opportunity that it gave me, I suppose, to, to just explore this whole idea of digital photography and its relationship to, to photography. So that was a few years ago, and the, the course gave me the opportunity to, to really, um. Spend time finding out what I wanted to do with photography in particular.

And, and I was particularly interested in, in the idea of, of the medium itself, the, the, the kind of digital side of things being incorporated into the subject as well as being part of the process. So I spent quite a few years producing work where, where the, um, photographic work, which was, um, I suppose in collaboration with the machine and output as a, with hints of the original, the image, the original, the original kind of actual scene or, or, or or construction that I, I'd photographed and, and had that incorporated.

Into the output, so that, that was still there. But it was also heavily o obviously very much a part of the, of, of, of a digital process with, in the final production. And what strikes me is, you know, when you've talked about constructing, so is, is your approach more constructing kind of artwork rather than kind of creating, or, you know, perhaps using other words to, to describe that process.

I think now I would say I'm more into the construction of work, but, but previously with, with the, uh, photographic images I was using, I always considered them to, to not just have the, um, the width and the, and the height. Of an image, but also to have a depth, and that was a hidden depth. We, you know, it's a depth that we don't see in the image.

The, the depth I'm talking about is one we don't see in the image. The depth is, is the code, all of the, the information that you are able to access when you have the image on screen and you are using digital applications and programs to process the image. So I always saw that as a, as a 3D in, in my mind it was something 3D, there was a depth to it and so I worked in that area.

So there was the original image and I was just delving into it. Now I do not as much 2D image work, and I work more with 3D images and I think that's probably. I also, with that, I often start with an image or a scan. So I've got a representation of something that I consider real and then the machine and I collaborate to once again process that and output it back into a space that that humans inhabit.

Here we have this collaboration between me and the machine, but that's often, I consider that more of a construction, if you like, than, than the original work that I used to, that I have been doing with. With 2D images and just for the listener, I mean, I think a lot of people, including myself, I'm used to a 2D image.

So what's the difference between a 2D image and a 3D image? Uh, well, well, when I say 3D image, I guess I'm, you know, on talking about onscreen, working on working with a 3D image, but in fact, I output it as a 3D object. So the image, it could be a scanned image rather than using a camera. I'll use a, well, I'll use a scanner or um, a scanning application to get a, a complete view of the object that I'm wanting to, to represent.

And that, and that's, I'm using that in, in the development of the work, which might incorporate other objects or other aspects. I want to introduce to the work on screen, and through that I'll produce an object and then I'm able to print it with a 3D printer. That sounds so interesting and, and I guess it adds, as you've mentioned before, kind of the layering and the depth to the, to the image or the piece of work that you're, you're construct.

Now, I did mention in the introduction that, you know, you're kind of exploring the assumptive view of nature. Could you talk a bit bit more about that and, because that sounds like the kind of, you know, the subject matter you're dealing with, so you're kind of dealing with very natural, like natural world.

What draws you to that and why, why do you kind of wanna challenge our view of it? I'm particularly interested in, in, you know, I think the situation that we find ourselves in. And you could probably say that of, of many generations. But I think right now we, we, there are certain, there are certain crises that we are facing as humans and I think part of that is, is to do with our view of other nature.

If you like, other nature is there for our use and, and. The assumptive view is something I like the, you know, what, what could we do with that? It it, it's a tree, but you know, what can we do with it? What, how can we make that tree work for us? So I, it, it was, I was quite interested in, um, the writings of Martin Hi group on the subject.

I think he called. On technology and he wrote about technology and nature. And technology in that instance is not simply the electronic technology that we're familiar with, but, but any tool really was techno is, is his definition of technology. So as humans, we just often look at, look at what's around us in, in, in other nature and, and see opportunities there and something that that can become, and it's quite a destructive, it's considered to be quite a destructive view of, of other nature.

It's not, we're not working with nature necessarily. I think the example they often use is. A dam on a river, 'cause the river is there for us to dam and change things. And regardless of, of how that affects not just the water flowing, but also everything that depends on that water or every living part of nature that depends on that water or that environment is all being affected by our approach.

And I think that that's, that's a kind of. Crucial element to to, to our view of nature. 'cause it would, you know, another view of that would be we could build a water mill and it would just be in perhaps collaboration with the water. You know, we would, it wasn't, it wouldn't be a, a destructive approach as much as a dam is say.

So I, I think, I think that's, that's the sort of examples that I've come across when, when exploring the idea of the assumptive view of other nature. I've seen some of you work and what strikes me is the kind of lifecycle of life and kind of decay, and you're capturing the decay side of things. How much of that also do you try to capture, you know, is that kind of part of what you've just talked about, of us trying to kind of shoehorn nature into helping us?

Well, uh, I'm, I'm glad you, you picked up on that, Heather. Um, because, uh, I mean, I have done several series of work about decay and decomposition. It's a natural part of the, of the life cycle. Also it's a very, from a, from an artist's point of view, visually, I think it's quite an interesting area to explore too.

And, and I have been, you know, that, that work that I, I did entitled Decay, um, several years ago was actually shortlisted, a series from, from that work was shortlisted in the aesthetic or art prize in York a few years ago now. But I. I'm, I'm pleased you brought it up because I actually have a new project and this one's called Endless, and it's along those lines.

It's, it's a, it's a, um, a project where I've, I, it's an ongoing project where I, um, I, I find discarded objects or something that's no longer needed or no longer used. Uh, it's dropped. It's, it's kind of squashed. It's, it's, that's it. The end of it. And I've, uh, digitally captured it and I've included it into the life, my depiction of, of, of the cycle and, and the project's called Endless.

And it's my depiction of the endless cycle. So we might, you know, see nature, see what's there, take it, make it into something, discard it. But it's still something, isn't it? It is still part of. Of our environment, of what, of what we are in a sense, as nature on this planet. And so we, I've, I've kind of used that idea in, in recreating some, some new work that's based, uh, that's using the material that I've digitally captured of, of disposed and objects, et cetera, that have been thrown away discarded.

That sounds really fascinating, and I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the art that comes out of that, to be honest. Now you've touched on a couple of people who you've mentioned who have influenced you. Are there other, any other people or anything else that kind of influences your art? Well, I think, you know, the, the writings of Harger and, and, um, other people who have sort of interpreted his work are very important.

Also, when I was studying, I was interested in a sociologist by the name of Sherry Turkel, who was very much in researching and, and writing about the digital transformation, if you like. I mean, you know, a lot of what is affecting society because of the opportunities that, that, um, the internet has given us.

But at that time, or prior to that time. There was a big change when, when the websites were no longer just static, they were actually quite dynamic and people every day were able to upload information and and contribute. So I think that was a big change and Sherry Turkel had written a lot about that, so I was quite interested in her work.

So they influenced me in my thinking about the subject matter of my work. One, I suppose influence in a, in a, not so much a or perhaps in, in, in a visual way initially, but more just in a, in an approach, um, was Andy Warhol. When I was much younger, I was fascinated by the factory and I think that's what I wanted to do.

I wanted to be part of the factory and you know, go to New York and be part of Warhol's factory. That was a great, uh, a dream I suppose. And I guess in those days I was doing screen printing and in particular photographic screen printing. And I suppose the influence of Warhol. Was evident then in my visual art, and so much so that, uh, colleagues of mine in Brisbane at the time, musicians who were in a band called the Go-Betweens, asked me and a, and a friend of mine, Mark Ross, to produce a, a poster advertising their first single.

And the first single was entitled Lee Remnick. And that was just a, an obvious thing for me. You know, Lee Remnick, here we go. Warhol silk screen photographic silk screen printing. So I did a version of, you know, a La Warhol of, of the film acted Lee Remic for the, for the promotion of their single. And that was, that was, you know, quite, that kind of set me off, I suppose in, in my, sort of, gave me a lot of confidence 'cause it was well received.

And, um, it's actually part of a box set that's being, uh, rereleased, um, this year, I think for that, for that band. And strangely enough, um, one of the members of the COVID twins, Lindy Morrison, the drummer, is in a, in another group now with a, a colleague, Rob Snarky. The band's called the, uh, Soki Circus Lindy Band, and their, their album is, has just been released.

And they asked me if I would, if, if I could provide art for the, for the cover of their, of their album, which I've done. But it's quite a, a long way from the original Lee Remic poster, if you like this particular artwork for the cover. Was is a photograph of a, of a 3D print that I created from a photograph of an actual piece of vegetation.

And so it's a, it's a kind of. It's, it's more in, in keeping with the digital approach that I take these days and rather than the, the original silk screen photographic prints, which I still, if I, you know, if I, if I could, uh, take the time, I, I would actually love to get back in and do some more, do some more photographic silk screen printing.

I love it at the time, and, and it's always, I think a brilliant, a brilliant, um, medium of art. There were, there are several other artists, I guess, who I've admired over time. Photographers like Andre Ti and Dwayne Michaels and Philip Luca de Kha. Jeff Wall was, I was a great fan of, I am a great fan of Jeff, Jeff Wall's work and, and I did at a certain point, used to create stage photography with, with actors and, and settings and that was quite a, um, I think that was influenced by Jeff Wool's work.

So, and Michael, Craig Martin, I find his work quite, I guess it, that's the sort of technology side, perhaps the, um, the objects that he presents in his paintings, uh, and the colors of course. Probably have influenced me that sort of work, you know, with the, the blocks of color, which I use or have used fairly, fairly frequently in my work.

So it sounds like you, you have quite a lot of influences and it's, I find it interesting too that music keeps popping up as well, you know, whether you're doing kind of posters or, you know, you started off early on Yes. You know, in music yourself, so. It kind of weaves itself back into your life periodically, doesn't it?

I think so. I think, you know, there was always that connection with visual art when I was doing the music, you know, we were doing posters that was part of it. So, um, yeah, I'm very happy to, to have been asked once again to, to produce a, an our piece for, for the cover of an album, and, you know, that's a great honor.

Yeah, I mean, I find it pretty amazing myself. And you know, I think in, you know, in today's world you think, oh, we've lost the, the appreciation of artwork for albums and things, but. I think there's still a, a market or an appreciation for, for that as well. So it's great that you've been asked to, to do another kind of cover for an album, so that I found that really cool personally.

Thanks, Heather. Thank you. Thanks. One thing that I guess I'm, I'm mindful of, you know, technology moves on, you know, and increasingly. Technology changes, and I'm mindful at the moment that that AI is very much here and, and you know, we're increasingly talking about it. I think AI's been around for a while now, but it's becoming more and more in the fore.

What, what are your thoughts on AI and its place, and it's something that you'd ever consider using to produce or to create your, your artwork? Or construct your at work. That's very, very good direction we're going in here. Thank you, Heather. Because I've often think, you know, with, with my think my work is a collaboration with the machine.

You know, it's programs, it's other people's work. True. You know, they've actually produced the programs that I'm using to produce my work. So it's a collaborative thing. Um, we often, I think the terminology the machine or, or the beast or whatever we like to call it, is, is, is sort of covers a whole variety of things and I think there's a lot of people involved.

So it is a human thing, but, um, now we're moving into the territory where it's a little bit more machine driven than human driven. And I think that's. That, that's very interesting territory. And currently I'm in STA preparation stage for an exhibition. In November 13th to the 30th of November at a PT Gallery in Deford, and the show's entitled Translucent Intersections.

And it's, uh, a group of eight of us are putting the show together, eight artists using a variety of media and one of the overriding aspects to the show. Is that we're engaging AI to assist us with the curatorial process. We've already explored different avenues of this in our understanding of, of how our work fits together.

So the, the, the translucent intersections is about intersecting. Of the, of the work of different artists. So we don't have a, a theme as such. The project doesn't, the, the exhibition isn't sort of theme driven, it's artist driven, and the work is what artists, what the individuals taking part would like to present.

But we're looking for the commonality, the connections, and the translucent intersections of those that perhaps aren't obvious. They're, they're not sort of, they're maybe a bit of opaque. You can see if you, if you work hard or if you look in a different way, you might find those intersections. But that's the idea is there's, there's more than just what we see.

There are other things that brings, bring the works together and. We decided to include the AI assistant, our, our assistant in, in curating the exhibition. And it's more of a project, I suppose, we're spending time developing our, our curatorial approach and also we're discussing along the way. We hope to do a, a regular blog over the several months, the next few months when we're bringing the show together and after the show's started, we'll be continuing with the blog, but we'd like to engage.

With people who visit about the use of AI in this particular way. And, and a lot of artists, uh, and myself included, um, use AI and, uh, particular chat, GPT or another form of that for assisting us in, in talking about our work in, in interpreting things that were associated with our work and major museums and galleries.

I understand use AI in, in, um, developing exhibitions from the collections. But in terms of small groups of artists, I'm not aware of, of using AI in this way. But it could quite, you know, it could quite easily be happening. But our, our intention is not only to use it, but to document it, uh, and to make it known and to make it as a talking point.

I think for other artists, it'll be. You know, I hope it's, it's a great talking and discussion point when they visit the exhibition and, and, and then sort of see what we, 'cause we will keep that, that aspect of it, that process will be quite live in terms of discussion and, and presenting. I mean, we, we hope to include a, a, a conversation corner as they call it, where, where, where visitors are able to contribute to our show as well.

And where do you think that exhibition will take you? Because it seems quite, in some ways there's, I presume there's gonna be a bit of a static bit, you know, of the artwork itself, but it sounds like you're kind of prompting those conversations. You're using it. You know, ai, it has an AI to help you curate it, you, you know, and, and to get those discussions with people who visit.

So where, where would you like to see that exhibition go? You know, is, are there kind of outputs from it you think actually that could influence something in the future? I think there'll be a lot to discuss during this, during this period of the project. Uh, Heather, I think there's quite a few points that people are bringing up in the group already.

And of course there's one particular area that's I think it gets touched on, uh, at a government level every now and then that of intellectual property and where does intellectual property, um, sit within the AI projected use of ai, et cetera. So I think there's quite a bit to discuss there, which will be a great opportunity for us, the eight of us, to sort of talk about, um, our impressions of, of where things are going with with ai.

I, I and I, and I think that's one aspect that's, that's, that will, will, will certainly be a result of the show. But, um, in terms of the, the future, will I, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm quite. Keen and the, one of the things with digital art is it's a, it's a giant medium if you like, and in in line with that medium, there's a lot of distractions.

You know, there's so many things that pop up that appear that you hear about that, that are available that you think. Oh, I should incorporate that. Oh, I might just try that or I'll have a go at that, which is fascinating and fun. But at the same time, you do have to kind of re retain your focus on, on what it is that you are, you are doing.

And I think with, with the ai, I would be keen to use it to sort of support me in what I'm doing. I don't wanna get too distracted by it because, you know, there'd be a lot to do and, and you could, you could sort of set off on a, on a different path if you incorporate AI in, in your actual work. I mean, I do, I do to some extent use the, um, the machine.

Programs that are available to currently that, that, that, that assist me with my work. I would imagine that things in the AI area will develop that I will use, and I, and I'd like to sort of keep my hand in there, you know, just keep an eye on it and, and only use things that I think are really necessary in my work.

Not get too carried away with all of the, um, opportunity to explore and try things out. And I'm really looking forward to seeing your future work and how you kind of incorporate, I don't wanna say incorporate, but how AI can, can assist you, as you say. Yes. Yeah. Assist is good. I, yeah, because I think sometimes there's a sense of it's taking over the world and we're all gonna lose our jobs, but Yeah.

I don't know if you'll never know, but. You know, I think at this stage it's not, it's not going to, so, and, and I should say actually the exhibition you're talking about is November, 2025 and it's in Deford, south London. Um, for those who are London, oh, sorry. Yes, yes. Yeah, no, I just, I I do have an international read, so I do try to Yes, yes.

Be clear. Now it comes to my final question of what's next. Where do you think or where do you see yourself going with your, your art? Well, I'm, I'm particularly. Engaged with the 3D side of things at the moment. I, I, I, you know, the, the idea of of feeding an image or, or whatever I, I've captured into the digital sphere and, and having it kind of manipulated in, in code, et cetera, and then now putting that collaboration into the physical space once more.

So that you're not only viewing it, but you're actually feeling it. You know, you can, the machines contributed to this work of art, and, and that's, that will be, that's obvious, you know, in the work that I do, you know, you can, it's, it's clear that there's, um, machinery involved and there's coding involved, and I like that, that idea of that collaboration.

I suppose I, I, I probably would. I mean, a lot of the 3D work. I do is, is fairly small. I am limited by the equipment that I have. That doesn't mean to say I'm limited by the, the intention I have for scaling the work, and I would really like to produce some fairly large scale work. The near, well in the future, you know, in the next 12 months or so, I'd like to move into, into that area, you know, where I'm actually producing fairly, fairly large scale work and I have, you know, several ideas and for, for sort of developing new projects in that area.

It sounds fascinating, and quite frankly, I'm again looking forward to, you know, your outputs and what and what you're producing. Thanks. I have seen, you know, a number of your work and you know, it's quite diverse. It's, and I find it amazing and it does challenge kind of your perception. You know what's real, what's not, what's machine, what's, you know, what's nature.

And I just like that interplay with the two and, and that creativity. And, and then I don't wanna say, I don't know if playfulness is the right word, but it's that kind of, you know, the two of them and, and where does one stop and the other begin? Yeah. Which I find really quite fascinating. But I'd like to thank you, Geoff.

It's been really interesting speaking with you and, and about your journey and about your artwork and, and new processes. But I'd like to thank you and good luck with your exhibition in November. Thank you very much Heather, and thanks for inviting me. I enjoy the Artist Tale podcasts and uh, I look forward to to hearing more of them and thanks for inviting me again.

Well, thank you and, and thanks for such kind, you know, wonderful words about the podcast. I really enjoy speaking to the guests, so I'm glad other people enjoyed as well. So thank you. Thanks for tuning into my conversation with Jeff. I hope his insights into digital media and photography gave you a fresh lens through which to view the world.

If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out Jeff's website and social media presence all linked in the show notes. And if you're enjoying artists' tales, help us keep the momentum going by sharing the podcast with your friends and fellow creatives. In the next episode, I'll be speaking with James Cook, a UK based artist who creates astonishingly detailed portraits, cityscapes and architectural wonders, using nothing but a typewriter.

His work transforms a vintage machine into a tool of modern expression, exploring perspective, hidden messages, and the beauty of constraint.