Linda Dounia - Once Upon A Garden

This work is a speculative archive of critically endangered and extinct flora that we have little to no records of, and therefore no way to remember. The artist uses AI as a time machine to piece together visual data about flowers we didn’t bother recording using sparse and fragmented available records. This final chapter of Dounia’s Once Upon A Garden project presents 50 emergent species of speculative flora made using image-to-image technology, tracing generative AI model evolution over time. The resulting flowers expose how AI models rely on mediated data and are made possible by machinery built with natural resources. During Digital Design Weekend (18-20 September), join a drop-in activity inspired by the artist's speculative flora and use collage to imagine a new flower shaped by memory, nature and imagination. Curated by Laura Herman and Marc Barto, produced by Nick Murray. Part of V&A x LDF 2026 #LDF26