James Fray

Raised in a landscape of chalk hills, James’ practice emerges from a deep commitment and vision of interwoven world building. This methodology acts as rebuff to prevalent current world building axioms of never ending growth and human exceptionalism.

Seeking to generate poetic explorations of research landscapes, James engages with a variety of media including film, animation, illustration, sculpture, and writing.

James studied his Part 1 at the University of Nottingham, receiving both a First and a RIBA Bronze Medal nomination. He has worked at Cullinan Studio, Liddicoat + Goldhill, and Liquid City during his time in practice. 

This project primarily highlights the existence of the Infinite Image Library and its unique classification system that makes it a spatial construct needing to be understood and explored architecturally. As physical construction becomes increasingly inviolable, the Library reveals a new way to design, in Latent Space with its 800 dimensions. 

The project addresses various cynicism over the emergence and use of AI tools in image production. It highlights the fundamental need for multidisciplinary explorations of these nascent technologies, for which coherent frameworks are critically lacking.

The animation is simultaneously ABOUT the Library; can be found WITHIN the Library; and is in fact OF the Library. The medium is the message. And it questions the very nature of future spatial practice.