Stories of Celluloid: Terra Nullius Data
Single-channel video, 8mm and AI-generated, 12’30”, with document archive, 2024

Stories of Celluloid: Terra Nullius Data is an essay film in four chapters that explores the evolving relationship between media history, technology, and the natural world in the age of AI image generation. This chapter, Terra Nullius Data, expresses the lost nostalgia and connection for the natural environment from a digitally native perspective. In the 20th century during the Japanese colonial period, Taiwan’s camphor tree industry thrived as camphor was an essential ingredient in celluloid which was used to make film. Once synthetic camphor was invented, demand for the raw material and thus the camphor forestry industry both declined. Today’s media development trends are transitioning from analog to digital and further propelled by AI technology. When looking back raises the question: where will our relationship with nature be headed next? This project examines the intricate connection between Taiwan’s forests and international media theory. The Mountain Algorithms exhibition debuts this one chapter from Stories of Celluloid and several accompanying archival documents, demonstrating the generative digital forest and the data dynamics behind the imagery.