One of the largest creative endeavours of my life has been a fantasy machine-hell-world I call ‘The Infinite Black’. What began as a grayscale art series, eventually grew, evolving into a book, two albums and means to better myself and get through life.
What is the Infinite Black Narrative?
In the dark, we are closer to our fears and nightmares than at any other time. We are vulnerable and often haunted by something in some form or another, it could be past deeds, poor life choices, events, accidents, traumas or mistakes. We carry these seeds of sickness around inside us our entire lives, unable or unwilling for some reason to eject them from our systems. This internal human suffering has value, and that value is an energy that can be harnessed, refined and distilled.
At its core, the Infinite Black is a dimension-raiding machine hell-world, ruled by an AI overseer known as Mother. Mother utilises special teams, the purpose of these ‘Snatcher Teams’ is to abduct humans. Phase one of Mother’s ‘war on the living world’, began as calculated abductions, this was achieved by time-hopping via portals to specific moments in history relevant to a selected victim’s life. At that time the teams would abduct them before they made some important discovery or invention. During phase one the machine chose specific human targets, people that could most benefit Mother’s new world. The result of the abductions was intended to weaken the development of the human world. With phase one complete, the machine has now activated a more aggressive protocol, in this deadly phase, Mother’s portal teams are targeting the general public, who are being systematically snatched and enslaved, installed as tortured components within the machine’s dark network.
Once assimilated, all humans undergo brutal body transformations and are continuously tortured, with potent nightmares and excruciating physical pain, the machine refines the human suffering that it extracts, distilling it as an energy that further powers Mother’s world.
Timeline
I developed the initial concept back in 2012, as a life trauma response, the narrative we know today slowly evolved within my ongoing, black-and-white art series for 11 years. The storyline was expanded, documented, and became clearly defined in 2023, when I co-created a book with poet author Jeff Oliver, the book, is entitled Infinite Black: Tales from the Abyss. To celebrate this upgrade to Mother’s world. I also began to experiment musically, and an album, complete with music videos, was co-created with musician Chris Szkup entitled Infinite Black:Audio from the Abyss. In 2024 I released an ambient electronic album set within the embryonic stage of the machine’s narrative called The Sleeping Machine. I have continued to redefine and evolve the story of the Infinite Black, and I use the power of that imaginary world, via art, music and writing, to cope with life better and deal with the ever-changing technological world around me.
The full range of images can be viewed at the The Art of Dan Verkys Facebook page.
Birth of a machine hell-world
On 4th October 2012, the first official image from the Infinite Black was released into the world. ‘The Broken and Deceived’ was the first black-and-white, human/machine transmogrification image that I constructed and officially dubbed ‘Infinite Black’. It features my friend, a talented Italian photographer, Silvia Alesandrini. Silvie had previously appeared in many of my images, but she was the first to appear within ‘the machine’.
Although I created several other images around the time, and in quick succession afterwards, they included some form of colour tinting, or had little, to no mechanical interaction. The original image resonated with me for some reason, as it did with those around me that I shared it with at the time. Something about it felt significant, and it set the wheels in motion, becoming my secret means of communicating how I was feeling through art, to cope with the effects of personal trauma, healthily.
My machine hell-world has made some significant upgrades over the years, but it is important to celebrate the day that I installed it in my brain, and I found a means to get through some of the darkest times of my life, and to evolve emotionally enough to survive. So, thank you Silvia, and thank you to all of those who were around all those years ago, and those who still support my work and want to be a part of my life.
The Book – Infinite Black: Tales from the Abyss
10 years later, the book I co-created with poet author Jeff Oliver was released, and it will always be a project that I am incredibly proud of.
This fully illustrated 136-page mechanical nightmare world is a tale of terror told from the perspectives of the humans enslaved within the machine. See what reviewers have called ‘An Inferno written for the Modern Era’. It is a horror/sci-fi experience that you won’t forget. Independently released on 6th April 2023.
The book is available from Lulu.com grab a copy today.
Introduction to the book, The Disappearance of Gabriel Sinclair read by Chris McAuley.
The Collaboration Album – ‘Infinite Black: Audio from the Abyss’
Another significant step in the evolution of the Infinite Black was the creation of the audio companion with my good friend, musician Chris Szkup. Infinite Black Audio from the Abyss was also released in 2023 and is available to stream or purchase from Bandcamp.
The album is an electronic, rock, metal, ambient cocktail of dark delights. 10 tracks that bring the machine hell-world to life like never before. Available to stream or purchase now from Chris Szkup’s bandcamp page.
Single from the album, Sentinel Rising.
The Ambient Album – The Sleeping Machine
The Sleeping Machine is another reference to my Infinite Black universe, representing a time in the narrative where the machine is initially building itself, it represents the sleeping core of the machine in stasis before it wages war on humankind. The Sleeping Machine was released on all music platforms on 10 April 2024.
Replicant is track from The Sleeping Machine
Let’s talk about it
Following the release of the book, Jeff Oliver and I had a great chat with Vincent Midgard from the Dark Mind Podcast, to get a deeper insight into the creation of the book, and the world of the Infinite Black, you can listen on virtually any audio platform including Spotify.
Dan Verkys 