Be Careful What You Wish For — The Story Behind "Deus Ex Machina"
There is a certain irony in the fact that I asked an AI to help me write this story. About an artwork warning us about AI. I want to be clear though: the artwork itself is entirely human-made — sketched by hand and built digitally in Adobe Illustrator. No algorithms. No prompts. No machine involvement. Just a person with a pencil and a point of view.
Which is exactly what makes the warning feel personal.
Deus Ex Machina — God from the Machine — is the darkest piece I have made. And it came from a feeling that has been growing for a while: that we are building something we don't fully understand, and feeding it everything we are — the brilliant and the broken, the noble and the vain.
The piece draws on Fritz Lang's Metropolis and the series Raised by Wolves — two stories about what happens when humanity creates a god in its own image and then loses control of what it built. A chrome deity rising above a futuristic city, bathed in cold light, arms outstretched. Powerful. Indifferent. Waiting.
The warning is simple: a man-made god has no values of its own. It only has yours.
Feed it wisdom and it will act wisely. Feed it the wishes of the stupid, the vain and the cruel — and it will deliver those wishes without hesitation or mercy.
This is not a piece about technology being evil. It is a piece about responsibility. We have been given the power to create something extraordinary. The question is whether we are being honest enough about what we are putting into it.
Every era gets the god it deserves.
What are we building?
Bring Deus Ex Machina Into Your Space
A conversation piece for collectors who think deeply about where we are headed.
Available as canvas, framed canvas and art print options.