Collective Imaginary — romaincarre

Collective Imaginary

Collective Imaginary
2026

Collective Imaginary

Perpetually evolving digital image, algorithmic averaging software, continuously enriched database

2026

Collective Imaginary exists in flux. The image evolves below the threshold of short-term memory, yet perceptible to other regimes of mnemonic perception, particularly as the viewer moves through the exhibition space.

Composed of several thousand images of a chosen idea — in this case, Yosemite National Park — the work presents itself as the arithmetic mean of these images, revealing only their global appearance: a palette of colours, an atmosphere. Unlike the conventional regime of the image, it is a midpoint between all existing viewpoints, yet the cartography of a dominant imaginary.

The database is destined to evolve indefinitely, throughout the duration of its exhibition and between presentations — at the pace of the continuous accumulation of images shared by humans across the internet, books, or social media. No artificial intelligence model intervenes to restore meaning: the database becomes sensible in itself, offering the contemplation of a raw mathematical process — a drift from calculation toward sensation, without interpretive mediation.

Collective Imaginary is an inquiry into objectivity. It embodies a median point shared by many observers, yet inhabited by none — a view from nowhere.