GODDESS IN THE MACHINE | SUBVERSUS

Subversus is a creative studio, artist collective and production house working across culture and commerce. We connect artistic practice and commercial opportunity, enabling work that’s ambitious and culturally sharp.

Founded by filmmakers, artists and cultural producers, Subversus was built from within these worlds. We understand commercial realities, their workflows, expectations and standards, because we work inside them every day.

Subversus acts as the bridge between artists and commercial partners, providing a support structure that protects the artist’s practice, serves the brief, and creates the conditions for shared authorship and collaboration. We make commercial production navigable for artists, and prioritise creative environments over traditional hierarchy. We work with artists who move across film, art, music, performance, fashion, installation, experiential and tech.

As a creative studio and production partner, we work alongside agencies, brands and cultural partners from concept through to delivery. Work is artist-led, brand-initiated, institutionally commissioned, or developed through independent practice and extended into commercial and public contexts.

Based in Sydney and operating globally, Subversus takes on unconventional briefs while honouring artist authorship and the ambitions of our partners.

We’re for agencies and brands seeking artist-led projects with cultural weight, for institutions exploring alternatives to traditional commissioning structures, and for artists whose work demands more room than a single category allows. Subversus is where artists and commercial partners meet on equal terms.

Subversus acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work, create and collaborate. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and recognise the ongoing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to land, culture and story. We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded and commit to working with care, respect and responsibility on this land.

Tanya Babić
Co-Founder / Executive Producer
tanya@subversus.com

Jason Sukadana
Co-Founder / Creative Director
jason@subversus.com

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SUBVERSUS JESS HERRINGTON

GODDESS IN THE MACHINE

Hollywood has long shaped our collective ideas of beauty. This project asks what happens when those standards are increasingly formed by digital platforms, algorithms, and synthetic image-making instead. From face filters to generative AI, emerging technologies are reshaping not only how we appear, but how we imagine ourselves. As virtual identities take up more space in everyday life, new modes of representation begin to surface - bold, uncanny, expressive, and at times surreal.

Developed for ACMI in collaboration with Junior Major, the project invites audiences to“wear” a series of speculative digital looks in augmented reality, informed by artificial intelligence. Drawing on text prompts and reference imagery from ACMI’s collection, Herrington generated and iteratively refined a suite of designs using Stable Diffusion and related AI systems, cycling images through multiple rounds to evolve each aesthetic. These outputs were then translated into wearable 3D filters. The resulting work offers a glimpse into a possible future of self-presentation, where identity is fluid, performative, and mediated through AI-driven visual systems.

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