Recent Work
PSYCLOPS explores the weaponization of perception—the way political rhetoric can determine not only what we think, but what we are encouraged to see.
At the center of the work is an AI-generated portrait of Stephen Miller transformed into a Cyclops: a real political figure rendered as a mythical creature with a single eye. The image merges the Cyclops with the contemporary concept of the psyop, short for “psychological operation”—the use of information, communication, or other forms of influence to shape perception, emotion, or behavior. PSYCLOPS becomes a figure of singular vision, psychological influence, and manipulated attention.
Miller's address at the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism on July 16, 2026 provides a point of departure. The conference framed political terrorism primarily through the threat posed by the political left, while giving insufficient attention to the substantial role of right-wing extremism in political violence in the United States. That selective framing is central to the work. The Cyclops sees intensely, but only in one direction. What falls outside its field of vision effectively disappears.
The AI-generated image adds another layer to this idea. A recognizable political figure has been transformed into something that does not exist—a synthetic portrait occupying the uncertain territory between documentary image, political caricature, propaganda, and fiction. The technology used to create the image becomes part of the subject: in an age of AI, images can be manufactured as easily as narratives, and both can shape what we perceive as reality.
The single eye therefore becomes a metaphor for monocular political thinking: the reduction of a complicated reality to one threat, one enemy, one narrative. PSYCLOPS asks us to consider whether the most effective psychological operation is not necessarily telling us what to believe, but determining where we look—and what remains outside the frame.
Brad Terhune
August 2026