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 closest to our fears. Night exposes the things that haunt us—past deeds, bad choices, accidents, traumas, and mistakes. We carry these seeds of sickness inside us for a lifetime, unable or unwilling to cast them out. Yet this suffering has value. Within the world of the Infinite Black, that value is energy—something that can be harvested, refined, and distilled.
At its core, the Infinite Black is a dimension-raiding machine hell-world ruled by an AI overseer known as Mother. To wage her silent war, Mother deploys specialised portal raiding squads known (locally) as Snatcher Teams—units tasked with abducting humans from across time.
Phase One of Mother’s war on the living world began with calculated strikes. Using portals, Snatcher Teams travelled to precise moments in history tied to selected individuals, abducting them before they could make discoveries or inventions that might strengthen humanity. These carefully chosen victims were people whose knowledge or abilities could best serve Mother’s emerging world, while their absence weakened the course of human development.
With Phase One complete, the machine then entered a far more aggressive stage. In this new phase, the portal teams no longer target only key individuals. Now the general public is hunted. People are systematically snatched from their lives and enslaved, installed as tortured components within the machine’s vast and nightmarish network.
Once assimilated, every human is subjected to brutal bodily transformation and endless torment. Nightmares are pumped into their minds while their bodies endure relentless physical pain. The machine refines this suffering—distilling human anguish into a potent energy source that fuels Mother’s expanding domain.
Timeline
I first developed the concept in 2012 as a response to personal trauma. In 2014 works accelerated following the death of art icon and personal inspiration H.R Giger. Over the decade that followed, the narrative gradually evolved within the ongoing art series. In 2023, the storyline was expanded, documented, and further clearly defined when I co-created a book with poet Jeff Oliver titled Infinite Black: Tales from the Abyss.
To celebrate this expansion of Mother’s world, I also began experimenting musically. Together with musician Chris Szkup, I co-created an album accompanied by music videos titled Infinite Black: Audio from the Abyss. In 2024, I released an ambient electronic album set during the embryonic stage of the machine’s narrative called The Sleeping Machine.
In 2026 the musical expansion continued when I began to experiment with AI, creating a fictional film soundtrack entitled Infinite Black: Artificial Reality.
I continue to refine and evolve the story of the Infinite Black, using the power of that imagined world—through art, music, and writing—as a way to process life and navigate 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 4 October 2012, the first official image from Infinite Black was released into the world. The Broken and Deceived was the first black-and-white image I created depicting a human–machine transmogrification, and it was the first work I formally titled Infinite Black. The piece features my friend, the talented Italian photographer Silvia Alesandrini. Silvia had appeared in many of my earlier images, but she was the first to appear within “the machine.”
Although I created several other works around that time, and many more in quick succession, most included some form of colour tinting or had little to no mechanical interaction. The original image resonated with me in a way the others did not. It also struck a chord with the people I shared it with at the time. Something about it felt significant, and it quietly set things in motion. It became a private way for me to communicate how I was feeling through art and to process personal trauma in a healthier way.
Over the years, my imagined machine hell-world has undergone many upgrades, but it feels important to acknowledge the day it first took root in my mind. That moment gave me a way to navigate some of the darkest periods of my life and to grow emotionally enough to endure them. So thank you, Silvia—and thank you to everyone who was there in those early days, as well as those who continue to support my work and share in my journey today.
The Book – Infinite Black: Tales from the Abyss
Ten years later, the book I co-created with poet and author Jeff Oliver was released—a project that remains one of my proudest achievements.
This fully illustrated, 136-page journey into a mechanical nightmare world tells a story of terror from the perspectives of humans enslaved within the machine. Described by reviewers as “an Inferno written for the modern era,” it delivers a haunting horror–sci-fi experience that lingers long after the final page. The book was independently released on 6 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 