Alan Turing
counterlight #1
October 2025
Counterlight #1: Alan Turing is a contemporary altar and ritual of recovery for Alan Turing, a queer man whose life was shaped by brilliance, institutional persecution, and historical silence. He helped crack the German Enigma cipher during World War II and developed foundational ideas in computation and artificial intelligence; he was later prosecuted for homosexuality and subjected to forced chemical castration.
Constructed from layered acrylic panels and thousands of coded images, this three-dimensional mosaic portrait rebuilds Turing’s face through the visual languages of cryptography, computation, and machine intelligence.
Motion-activated light illuminates the portrait as viewers approach. Enigma keys contain a hidden message, while a padlock on a reclaimed-walnut shelf protects a QR code leading to an AI-assisted, first-person digital encounter with Turing’s story.
Part portrait, part memorial, and part technological ritual, the work asks viewers to unlock a silenced queer history and sit with what is revealed.
Enter the experience: Scan the lock / hear Turing’s story
Dimensions: 22 x 30 inches
Materials: Layered acrylic panels, digital prints on vinyl, reclaimed walnut, metal keys and lock, motion-activated LED backlighting, QR-enabled AI-assisted digital experience
counterlight #1
October 2025
Counterlight #1: Alan Turing is a contemporary altar and ritual of recovery for Alan Turing, a queer man whose life was shaped by brilliance, institutional persecution, and historical silence. He helped crack the German Enigma cipher during World War II and developed foundational ideas in computation and artificial intelligence; he was later prosecuted for homosexuality and subjected to forced chemical castration.
Constructed from layered acrylic panels and thousands of coded images, this three-dimensional mosaic portrait rebuilds Turing’s face through the visual languages of cryptography, computation, and machine intelligence.
Motion-activated light illuminates the portrait as viewers approach. Enigma keys contain a hidden message, while a padlock on a reclaimed-walnut shelf protects a QR code leading to an AI-assisted, first-person digital encounter with Turing’s story.
Part portrait, part memorial, and part technological ritual, the work asks viewers to unlock a silenced queer history and sit with what is revealed.
Enter the experience: Scan the lock / hear Turing’s story
Dimensions: 22 x 30 inches
Materials: Layered acrylic panels, digital prints on vinyl, reclaimed walnut, metal keys and lock, motion-activated LED backlighting, QR-enabled AI-assisted digital experience
