It is time to hit the pause button.
The Mission
They say that 80% of what we perceive comes through sight. We build our understanding of the world—and of ourselves—through images. But today, that understanding is under siege.
We are living through a fundamental shift in human perception. Every minute, hundreds of thousands of photos are uploaded to the web. In a single year, humanity produces nearly a trillion images. We are bombarded by advertising, social media feeds, and the relentless pressure to broadcast our lives in real-time.
“The gap between seeing, thinking, and publishing has shrunk to zero.”
We are no longer just capturing light; we are generating data. We are moving from photography as documentation to photography as simulation. When an algorithm can hallucinate a “photograph,” what happens to the truth? When we can perfect our self-image with a single click, what happens to our identity?
EIDOS exists to explore this collision. We are creating a philosophical gap—a quiet space amidst the noise—where we can stop swiping and start reflecting on what this technology actually means to us.
The Philosophy
“We are creating a space for self-reflection—a quiet gap amidst the noise where we can address the new world unfolding before our eyes.”
To understand the future of the image, we must look to the origin of our name. The definition of EIDOS is the shape or form that ideas take. We see this as a connection between the perception of physical reality combined with the theory of forms that Plato had that is now manifested through generative AI.
1. The Shape
Originally: “That which is seen”
This is the realm of Photography. It refers to the physical shape, the physique, the visible figure. It is grounded in the physical world—the “Pencil of Nature.” It is the craft of capturing the light and texture of the reality in front of us.
2. The Form
Later: “The Idea / Essence”
This is the realm of Artificial Intelligence. Philosophers like Plato used the word eidos to describe the invisible, universal concepts that structure our reality. It is the “Pencil of the Mind”—a vast, synthesized world of forms that exists apart from the messy physical world.
Episode 1: The Dinner Party
AI Image: The Dinner Party by Ira Gardner (2025) In this inaugural deep dive, we explore the launch of Eidos, a new quarterly journal and conceptual project designed to address the modern “crisis of perception.” As the gap between seeing and publishing shrinks to zero, Eidos invites us to “hit the pause button” and create…
Episode 2: Reclaiming the Pause
AI Image: Past and Present by Ira Gardner (2025) Eidos tackles one of the most fascinating contradictions in modern art: why are we returning to a slow, 170-year-old photographic process in an age of instant digital gratification? This episode explores the Wet Plate Collodion process, invented in 1851, which requires photographers to become chemists—pouring sticky…
Episode 3: The Captains Chair
AI Image: The Captain’s Chair by Ira Gardner (2026) Episode Summary In this episode, Eidos takes a deep dive into the evolution of our relationship with technology. We explore a personal narrative, co-authored by Ira Gardner with AI, to trace the shift from a tactile, mechanical world to an abstract, screen-mediated one. The conversation explores…
Episode 4: The Alchemy of the Image – A Conversation with Dr. Gregory E. Roth
AI Image: Homage to Dr. Greg in New York by Ira Gardner (2026) Guest: Dr. Gregory Roth, PhD – Philosopher, Archpriest, and Wet Plate Photographer Episode Overview In this episode of Eidos, we invite Dr. Gregory E. Roth to our “modern dinner party” to discuss the art, history, and philosophy of wet plate photography. We…
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Episode 5: The Tactile Image – A Conversation with Wet Plate Photographer Cindy Groepper
AI Image: Homage to Cindy by Ira Gardner (2025) Host: Ira Gardner Guest: Cindy Groepper – Artistic Polymath and Wet Plate Photographer Episode Overview In this archival interview from 2017, host Ira Gardner sits down with Cindy Groepper to explore the hands-on, often unpredictable world of wet plate photography. A retired nurse turned “intuitive artistic…
Episode 6: The Architecture of Thought – Vannevar Bush and the Birth of the Information Age
AI Image: The Architects of the Future by Ira Gardner (2025) Topic: An exploration of Vannevar Bush’s landmark 1945 essay, “As We May Think,” and its profound influence on modern technology and artificial intelligence. Episode Overview In the summer of 1945, as World War II drew to a close, Dr. Vannevar Bush—who coordinated 6,000 of…
Episode 7: The Medicine of the Quiet Eye
AI Image: Fractal Medicine by Ira Gardner (2025) Topic: Exploring the profound medicinal effect that specific visual environments—particularly nature-based fractal patterns—have on our mental well-being and nervous systems. Episode Summary Are you feeling the weight of modern burnout? That persistent, low-level stress might not be caused by your to-do list, but by your visual environment.…
Episode 8: A Tale of Two Adams- The Sublime vs. The Man-Altered Landscape
AI Image: From Wilderness to Data by Ira Gardner (2025) Topic: The radical shift in 20th-century American landscape photography—contrasting the majestic, spiritual wilderness of Ansel Adams with the stark, objective “New Topographics” movement. Episode Overview For decades, the iconic vision of the American West was defined by Ansel Adams: towering mountains and untouched wilderness that…
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Episode 9: Charting the Inner Wilderness – The Promise and Peril of Psychometrics
AI Image: Cartography of the Self by Ira Gardner (2025) Core Theme: An exploration of psychometric testing, the quantified self, and the philosophical tension between using personality labels as tools for growth versus cages that limit human potential. Episode Overview From viral social media quizzes to high-stakes corporate assessments, we are obsessed with personality tests.…
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Episode 10: The World as Picture: Heidegger, Technology, and the Art of Resistance
AI Image: The Echo Chamber by Ira Gardner (2025) Episode Summary In this episode of Eidos, we host a “modern dinner party” for the ideas of German existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger. We explore his seminal essay, The Age of the World Picture, and discuss how the modern era is defined by a massive transition in…
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Episode 11: Truth and Reality in the Age of Generative AI
AI Image: Synthetic Labeling by Ira Gardner (2025) The Epistemic Breach: Truth and Reality in the Age of Generative AI Episode Overview This episode explores the “epistemic breach”—a fundamental philosophical crisis where generative AI threatens our collective ability to agree on objective truth. We trace the history of visual trust, examining how the “indexical contract”…
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Episode 12: The AI Dilemma – Creative Catalyst or Industrial Theft?
AI Image: Resistance or Restraint? by Ira Gardner (2025) Core Theme: An exploration of the heated debate surrounding generative AI in art, contrasting the “Academic Skeptic” view of labor and ethics with the “Conceptual Visionary” view of intent and new mediums. Episode Overview This episode addresses the clash between two fundamental philosophies of art: the…
Continue Reading Episode 12: The AI Dilemma – Creative Catalyst or Industrial Theft?