The Last Judgement is a reintepretation of Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych The Last Judgement c. 1484.

Instead of scenes from the bible, AI and computer vision algorithms are the all seeing God.  In 2021, a large proportion of people defer to algorithmic systems as if they hold the absolute truth.

Various bodies from art history – Venuses’, hero figures like Michelangelo’s as well as witches, sick bodies and prehistory artifacts, among others – replace Bosch’s depictions of people and monsters, inviting audiences to think about which bodies are acceptabe and visible and which are now considered monstrous and neglected. 

By referencing a 500 year-old painting,  art history and prehistoric artifacts, Heaney highlights how dogmatic belief systems and rigid boundaries persist in different forms across centuries.  

As research, Heaney showed Open Pose computer vision algorithm – a system that can detect human bodies – the images of bodies from art history to determine which are seen and which are invisible.

She discovered that generally young, white, slim, able bodies were visible, while older people, people of colour and hybrid forms were neglected, demonstrating how historical and cultural prejudicial biases have been translated into code.

Like Bosch’s original, the right of the painting is a portrayal of hell, where the invisible “monstrous” bodies jostle in an abstract space.

Each drawing is accompanied by a short poetic verse.

The Last Judgement was exhibited at Science Gallery, Dublin.