The central idea
AI can be useful without making human craft irrelevant. The important distinction is not old technology versus new technology. It is whether a collected object carries evidence of how, where and by whom it was made.
What the evidence shows
In HUMAN EVIDENCE, film was physically exposed in North Sikkim, developed through chemistry and preserved through negatives or unique instant sheets. The cold, grain, colour shift and limited number of frames are not effects added after the event; they belong to the history of each work.
Human origin is not a claim that technology is harmful. It is a transparent description of authorship, physical process and the evidence connecting a person to a collected object.
What collectors should notice
Look beyond visual resemblance. Ask whether the physical source exists, whether the process is documented, whether the edition was fixed before release and whether future ownership can remain connected to the same origin record.
- Who conceived and created the work?
- What physical process can be evidenced?
- Was generative AI used in the collected image?
The ZINE position
AI may support the institution, but the collected work must meet the stated ZINE Human Origin criteria.
The aim is not to turn process into mythology. It is to keep the object, its limits and the human moment behind it understandable for the next collector.