Behind The Artworks: Binary Order - The Future Belongs To The Mad (2023)

For The Future Belongs To The Mad it was my first time experimenting with AI generated art (the Thrown Away EP was made after I had the art for Future) and I know there’s a lot of discussion surrounding AI at the moment but it was something that I felt helped me achieve results that I otherwise couldn’t.

I generated over 500 images ultimately and it was a process of sorting out which ones really stood out to me. It was honestly a lot of fun to experiment with different prompts and create something that I think really reflected the music and the themes of the album. I went with the one that you see now mainly because it had a strong sense of foreboding and loneliness, two themes that are very prevalent throughout the album.

I love cyberpunk and sci-fi dystopia but I wanted to stay away from the clichés of neon lit cities and girls with half their head shaved, and lean more towards the vibes of Aeon Flux for example. Something that feels so futuristic that it’s almost alien in design, and I eventually got to a place that I feel really symbolized that.

The piece also stood out to me for the lone figure standing in an almost liminal space starring off into a barren world that can only just be seen. A lot of the images I was generated either had people too present or none at all.

Funnily my flatmate (who helped in the process of deciding which pieces to go with) was determined to have a “ghoulie” that represented “the mad” in the album title. Something that I was very against, but ultimately ended up compromising just because the piece really spoke to me. It also reminds me a little of Audioslave’s first album’s artwork for similar reasons.