This essay reframes cinematic realism as a phenomenon of perception rather than indexical truth. Drawing on phenomenology and philosophy of mind, it explores how AI-generated images can feel real without referring to the world, and how realism shifts in an era of generative systems and posthuman authorship.
Truth in the Age of Synthesis — an excerpt from AI Cinematic Realism
This essay examines how AI-generated realism reshapes ethics, trust, and responsibility. It explores asymmetrical knowledge, synthetic performers, labor rights, and cultural memory, arguing that in an age where images can feel real without being recorded, realism must be understood as an ethical practice—not just an aesthetic one.