Please access my full video portfolio through the Galleries page. Each composition's individual page also contains a sequence of fixed images from the video.
For years, my work has relied on the careful layering and integration of disparate elements—photographs, illustrations, drawings, and sounds—to build cohesive stop-motion videos as I developed a body of conceptual surrealist compositions.
In 2024, I expanded my creative palette to include generative synthesis. AI image and video generators allow me to create specific figures, textures, lighting effects, and motion loops that were previously impossible to capture. This post-digital process, however, remains rooted in composition. Every frame is still individually curated, every transition is manually crafted and timed, so that the final assembly is a deliberate act of human creation. Every audio track is remixed from available music clips and sound effects to create a soundscape that echoes the structure and atmosphere of the visual components.
In 2024, I expanded my creative palette to include generative synthesis. AI image and video generators allow me to create specific figures, textures, lighting effects, and motion loops that were previously impossible to capture. This post-digital process, however, remains rooted in composition. Every frame is still individually curated, every transition is manually crafted and timed, so that the final assembly is a deliberate act of human creation. Every audio track is remixed from available music clips and sound effects to create a soundscape that echoes the structure and atmosphere of the visual components.
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My practice began with geometric abstractions in the 1970's and 1980's. I developed works as physical constructions, digital prints and multimedia arrays. Please visit the Archive page of this site, and the Archive project at Behance to view examples of this work.
In 2002, I began to transition a number of these earlier compositions to digital imagery and developed them as hybrid, digital mixed media images and videos. My exploration of post-digital assemblage led to a deepening involvement with modern surrealist methods and the digital liberation of the image from the constraints of rational, visual logic. Generative AI techniques quickly became a natural component of this surrealistic workflow as they enabled me to render the incongruous and physically impossible with a photo-realistic clarity that was previously unreachable.
Please follow my ongoing visual journal @hrbarnhartart on Instagram. You can also follow my work on Vimeo, Behance and subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Thank you for viewing and for following along as I explore these new frontiers in digital mixed media and synthetic surrealism.