Alice Bucknell
∗1993, UK/US
Alice Bucknell (1993, London, UK) lives and works in Los Angeles. They are an artist, writer, and educator. Their practice originates in the world of gaming: the virtual worlds they create become platforms to explore real issues related to ecology, resources, and artificial intelligence. Through these parallel worlds, the artist moves beyond tensions inherent in the ways humans have historically analyzed their context — human versus machine, artificial versus natural, individual versus collective.“I think with gaming — the way you enter a world is almost like being reborn: you have to learn everything from scratch [...], and that can be a really powerful and poetic place [...]. Gaming unlocks a sort of humility, an unlearning that, for me, is a truly poetic place to begin thinking about questions around ecology, futures, the limits of scientific knowledge, and other kinds of data systems.” Bucknell is the first artist whose video games have entered the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).
In the basement of Hotel Adler, Bucknell presents Ground Truthing, a 17-minute simulation film embedded within a sculptural environment. Encountered just below the central pedestrian street, the installation unfolds around a vertical screen set around a series of carved and CNC-milled replicas of a tree trunk, serving as stools for the visitors, produced by local experts. These elements operate simultaneously as functional objects and as mediating interfaces, situating the viewer between the animated world emitted by the screen and the digitally reconstituted presence of the sculptural forms within the space.
The film explores how remote sensing technologies—such as satellites and GPS—shape our understanding of climate futures. Moving through four speculative environments, from rainforests to melting icebergs and digital cities, it contrasts data-driven models with embodied, ground-level knowledge. The term “ground truthing” refers to the verification of satellite data through lived, physical experience.
The installation bridges digital simulation and material reality, where wood becomes a fragmented interface—linking ecological systems, technological vision, and the limits of prediction.
