Generative image & sound · 2026
A Soft
Refusal
A space
before response.
A Soft Refusal is a generative work about algorithmic attention and cognitive sovereignty. It begins with blur: the residue of an image copied and compressed, but also a zone that temporarily resists identification, classification, and prediction.
The work moves through six emotional states: fragile clarity, attraction and capture, algorithmic repetition, fragmentation, friction, and the slow recovery of agency.
Moving the mouse or a finger disturbs the image and feeds its impulse to reproduce. Remaining still forces the system to encounter a pause it cannot immediately convert into data.
This stillness is not withdrawal. It becomes a small but real gesture: recovering enough time to choose the next movement.
Sound is essential · headphones recommended · 82 seconds