Ex Machina (opens in a new tab), the directorial debut of Alex Garland (opens in a new tab), was one of my favourite films of 2015. An independent, British-made sci-fi, the film focuses on the technology of artificial intelligence (AI) and what it means to be human. Domhnall Gleeson (opens in a new tab) plays Caleb, a programmer working for the world’s foremost technology company (the fictional Blue Book). Caleb wins a competition to visit the remote home of the enigmatic CEO of the company, Nathan (Oscar Isaac (opens in a new tab)). Once there he discovers that he is to take part in a top secret test of an artificial intelligence that Nathan has been developing.

Caleb is told that he must subject the AI, named Ava (Alicia Vikander (opens in a new tab)), to the Turing test (opens in a new tab) and see if he can distinguish her from another human by asking her a series of questions. It soon becomes clear that Ava is a remarkable achievement and Caleb becomes very excited by the implications of the technology. Caleb discovers that her creation has come at a price and Ava has engineered a plan to escape from her cell with his help. Unbeknownst to the pair, Nathan is fully aware of the duplicity and the trio are set for a deadly encounter.

This screen print was released in 2015 by Mondo (opens in a new tab), the Austin-based purveyors of limited edition posters and film merchandise. The design and art is the work of Jock, a British illustrator who works on comics, screen prints and is also a concept artist for films. He had collaborated with Alex Garland on Dredd (2012) before being asked to create artwork for Ex Machina (opens in a new tab). He has also worked on promotional images for films including Iron Man 3 and The Dark Knight Trilogy. Jock has created some fantastic posters over the past few years and they can be viewed on his official website (opens in a new tab), which also features images of his film concept art and comics work.

A compendium of his work called The Art of Jock has just been released and I highly recommend picking up a copy. See the review of the book (opens in a new tab) on Creative Bloq.