Do Not Believe Me

Illustrated book, accompanied but installation - pen and ink, digital colouring, welded steel, motor (2017). The Bite Back Movement, Alexander Augustus and Seung youn Lee, created in collaboration with Dr. Kee-Woong Kim, from the Vital Signals Centre of the Korea Research Institute of Science and Standards (KRISS). This project was completed in Dajeon (Korea), for the Artience Foundation.

How lonely the universe is without other intelligent creatures… How empty it all seems… We worked with a science institute to craft a tale of the deep past and deep future, which reflects the present.

Using the Earth as a model, I worked in collaboration with fellow artist Seung youn Lee and Dr. Kim Kwi-woong of the Korean Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS), to imagine another alien species. Our concept was of another planet somewhere in the universe, “Pale Blue Dot X”, which has similar conditions to Earth, but where the dinosaurs did not die out.

We wondered why we have not met aliens yet? Maybe they are already here but we do not know how to communicate with them? Following this logic, Dr. Kim discussed Silicone Diamond Vacancy, a new area of research exploring traces of silicone within diamonds. Imagine if diamonds are actually actually ancient aliens, right here on Earth, and all of their stories are trapped in the mysterious silicone of their structure.