Distortions of The Past

FILE 2024 | Aesthetic Synthetics
International Electronic Language Festival
Michael Sadowski (aka derealizer) – Distortions of The Past – Austria

Fractal elements that resemble cosmic structures evoke the illusion of traveling through a fractal universe. Rules, in the form of prompts, and chance interact with each other to create a visual fantasy.

Bio

Using Stable Diffusion, a visual synthesizer, the artist turns fantasies into videos using just a PC, similar to the invention of printing 600 years ago. Exploring the interplay between software algorithms that create visual worlds and the artist’s mind guiding this process is incredibly exciting. Unlike traditional cinema, there is no ‘reality’ or humans involved, making it a satisfying medium for creating visual art.

Credits

Visuals: Michael Sadowski
Music: Distortions of the Past by Dreamstate Logic

IN
In IN (2003) an actress remains motionless for an hour in a display window filled with water. The distortion to her senses caused by the environment she is in makes her go into a trance. The sounds of her breathing and movement are amplified by microphones.

sofi

in analysis of the modern skyscraper there is traditionally an aesthetic agenda that localizes itself in a “shoes” or “hat” location. The tower typology has ignored the possibility of a center distortion. This distortion acts as an aesthetic element as well as an organizational(programmatic) locator. By designing from the middle out there is a chance for the building to better blend with its context by keeping the processional elements in the center. Entrance and roof conditions mimic their tower brothers and give a moments rest in the exuberance of design. This proposal creates a center distortion and layers form through a simulation of gravity and the“claspyness” of the outer skin. The inner void acts as a way of creating a Secretary oriented office program rather than a traditional first floor security, freeing up the center of the building to the public. The project looks to rationalize itself through components rather than a monolithic form.

理查德·杜邦
리처드 듀퐁
Mr. Dupont makes these sculptures based on a full-body scan of his own body. He says viewers relate to them like they’re three dimensional illusions: The viewer walks around the figures and gets all these different perspectives as the surfaces change. That’s one way the distortions are interesting, because no two perspectives are the same.

DARK DISTORTIONS
‘Dark Distortions’ – was inspired by Euclid, a forthcoming ESA mission to study the mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy, which is due to launch in mid-2022. Dark matter is thought to account for 85% of the matter in the universe. Visible stuff within galaxies – such as stars and planets and dust – has insufficient gravitational pull to prevent galaxies from disintegrating as they rotate. But galaxies don’t fly apart in this way, so astrophysicists proposed that they must contain “dark” matter that has sufficient mass to keep galaxies intact – but which has never been seen directly.

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ТЕМНЫЕ ИСКАЖЕНИЯ
«Dark Distortions» – был вдохновлен Евклидом, предстоящей миссией ЕКА по изучению загадочной природы темной материи и темной энергии, запуск которой запланирован на середину 2022 года. Считается, что темная материя составляет 85% материи во Вселенной. Видимое вещество внутри галактик – например, звезды, планеты и пыль – обладает недостаточным гравитационным притяжением, чтобы предотвратить распад галактик при их вращении. Но галактики не разлетаются таким образом, поэтому астрофизики предположили, что они должны содержать «темную» материю, обладающую достаточной массой, чтобы сохранить галактики в целости, но которую никогда не видели напрямую.

Valla claimed to have collected a series of 60 “surrealistic” images, or that, at least, give that impression, during a long period “playing” in Google Earth.“The images are a kind of mirrors for a fun house.They are strange illusions and reflections of the real ”Despite the strong distortions, which easily resemble a surrealist painting, the images of the work do not have any manipulation of tools like Photoshop, for example.”The images are screenshots of Earth with basic color adjustments”, “This is a construction of 3D maps on two-dimensional bases, creating these fabulous and unintended distortions”.

Versus
Elaborated by the French/Japanese duo Nonotak, ‘VERSUS’ is an immersive A/V experience that questions the relationship between 360° image and sound. The viewer finds himself submerged, at the centre of a perfectly geometric environment that constantly redefines space by breaking distances between projection, audience and screen. The work gives the illusion of a new type of architecture, a world created from distortions that shatter boundaries, and that brings the idea of infinity.

Distortions in Spacetime
In a giant star’s final moments, atoms compress to a point where density becomes infinite, time stretches to a stop and the gravitational field is so strong that not even light can escape: a black hole. But the force that creates this dark shadow also spews out a supernova explosion of matter that can eventually coalesce to form planets, plants and people. In Distortions in Spacetime, visitors will see themselves reflected in this matter and will begin to understand the cosmic connection between black holes, dying stars and our very existence.

Lost Dimension
Lost Dimension Non-dimensional Cities is an immersive cinematic experience in which participants journey through an endlessly unfolding virtual cityscape that expands over all axes. This dimensionless cityscape is constructed from a large collection of point clouds and sounds. While the user is standing on the controller pod and navigates through this virtual world, a sense of physical instability takes over and the platform becomes an anchor to hold on to. The building blocks of the world are generated from depth map information and panoramic photographs obtained from Google Street View’s API. Depending on the user’s position in the virtual world these blocks are dynamically repositioned on a three-dimensional grid. By subtle manipulation of motion and sound, perspective distortion and shifts in balance Lost Dimension unquestionably re-calibrates the viewer’s perception of dimensionality.

TIMÉE
In roughly 360BC, Plato shared his dialogue Timaeus, in which he imagined the universe as a geocentric system, including a concept called Music of the Spheres where each planet had its own sonic tone based on its unique orbital revolution. The entire system was divided into an octave, a fifth, a fourth, and tone, and as all the planets revolved around the Earth, the solar system would comprise a perfect musical score.

a little death

Despite the broader reference to the traditional pictorial genre of “still life”, disseminated from the Dutch and Spanish painters of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, ‘Still life’ from 2001 and ‘A little death’ from 2002 refer especially to the painting of transient elements of the French Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) to discuss the distortion and inexorability of time, the finitude of life or, above all, the interdependence between life and death. The title makes a direct reference to the expression with which the French philosopher Georges Bataille defined the orgasm: ‘une petite mort‘.

reflektor distortion

The installation reflektor distortion – conceived as a rotating, water-filled basin – is inspired by the shape of a parabolic mirror that ‚rotates‘ water via centrifugal force. The work consists of the three main components mirror, reflection and distortion. Both curve and distortion of the water surface is affected by speed and integrated resistors that generate a permanently new and re-organizing mirror reflection. The water surface will be supplementary distorted via speaker by resonating low sound frequencies. The function of the mirror is hereby eminent: The mirror surface is the medium that reveals reality as distorted reflection. Rising the question of the observed and the real image the installation plays with the artist’s thesis that we all have a permanent distorted perception of reality.

简宁汉
מרס קנינגהם
マース·カニングハム
머시 디스 커닝햄
МЕРС КАННИНГЕМ
« Scenario » de Merce Cunningham
Rei Kawakubo’s humorous costumes toy with the idea of physical distortions, such as humps and big rear ends. They are in mostly vertical blue stripes on white, or in pale green and white-checkered patterns. For much of the dance, five or six dancers twist and pose, each in his or her own space, with a rush of additional dancers to the stage toward the end of the performance. The bold electronic musical score is by Takehisa Kosugi.

Automatic Piano
Inspired by the work of James Tenney, György Ligeti, Charlemagne Palestine, and Conlon Nancarrow, Seth Horvitz’s Eight Studies for Automatic Piano makes use of simple, computer-aided compositional processes to test the limits of human perception and machine precision. It relies on a bare minimum of technical means to explore notions of temporal distortion, iterative process, and elegant complexity.

coagulate
Mihai Grecu’s video work Coagulate is a visually immersive journey into a world of water which behaves against the laws of nature. This choreography of fluids explores absence, presence and aquatic distortions. In this world, man breathes water and fish breath air. Water seems impervious to gravity. Rather than narrative, Coagulate is based on sensation and atmosphere.

فريدريك هيمان
弗雷德里克·海曼
פרדריק היימן
フレデリックヘイマン
ФРЕДЕРИК ХЕЙМАН
His work, humorous and surreal, helps to erase boundaries between photography, graphic design and space shaping. With many distortions (real or digital), not to mention strange and imposing installations, Heyman creates a world both unstructured and fascinating. Part of a new generation of photographers, his aim seems to give birth to a new kind of collaboration between all the arts, definitely modern and complex.

distortion
Human, ultra human or a poetic of deformation? Observing series “Distortions” by young photographer Hickey Heart (23 years old), is like taking a disturbing trip into our online lives 24h/24h, among small epiphanies, existential dilemmas and everyday solitudes.

Flying Stone No.2
Zhan Wang’s most celebrated work to date is his series of “artificial rocks” – stainless steel replicas of the much-revered “scholar’s rocks” traditionally found in Chinese gardens. The mirrored surfaces of these often monumental objects absorb the viewer and its surrounding environment, enticing them to become part of the work, an abstraction and distortion of reality, thus creating a visual interplay between positions of tradition and modernity.

واين ماكغريغور
韦恩·麦格雷戈
웨인 맥그리거
ויין מקגרגור
ウェイン·マクレガー
Уэйн МакГрегор
rAndom International
FAR
Wayne McGregor’s anatomy-defying choreography and ground-breaking approach across dance, science, film, music, visual art and technology has fuelled a string of truly unique works. FAR is no exception. Inspired by the controversial Age of Enlightenment, FAR mines an era that first placed ‘a body in question’. Ten incredible dancers confront the distortions, sensuality and feeling of the 18th Century‘s searing contemporary sensibility to a haunting score by the critically-acclaimed composer Ben Frost. Staged in a mesmerizing environment of shadow and light (rAndom International, Lucy Carter), object and film (Moritz Junge, Ravi Deepres), FAR binds cutting edge design with choreography made from a radical cognitive research process.

卡特琳·西于尔扎多蒂
КАТРИН СИГУРДАРДОТТИР
dining room
With architecture and landscape as sources, the artist’s sculptures use scale and distortion to focus attention on the space and perception between the viewer and the object. Using the vernaculars of architecture and topography, Sigurdardóttir creates objects with a prismatic spirit that fractures a viewer’s perspective.

فريدريك هيمان
弗雷德里克·海曼
פרדריק היימן
フレデリックヘイマン
ФРЕДЕРИК ХЕЙМАН
His work, humorous and surreal, helps to erase boundaries between photography, graphic design and space shaping. With many distortions (real or digital), not to mention strange and imposing installations, Heyman creates a world both unstructured and fascinating. Part of a new generation of photographers, his aim seems to give birth to a new kind of collaboration between all the arts, definitely modern and complex.

“These photos are a result of how intriguing the concept of distortion translates to architecture. It creates a sense of falling into itself, like capturing a moment of demolition. I can destroy titanous steel structures with the click of a mouse and create new twisted versions of reality. I was also inspired by San Francisco. I had just moved here and being a new city was disorienting and exciting and I wanted to capture how my whole world had changed.”

DAYDREAM V.02

DAYDREAM is an audiovisual installation that generates space distortions. Relationship between space and time, accelerations, contractions, shifts and metamorphosis have been the lexical field of the project. This installation aimed at establishing a physical connection between the virtual space and the real space, blurring the limits and submerging the audience into a short detachment from reality. Lights generate abstract spaces while sounds define the echoes of virtual spaces. Daydream is an invitation to contemplation. The frontality of the installation leads the visitors to a passive position.

Construction N
Often occupying both physical and temporal space, my sculpture has always incorporated both conventional and experimental media, including woodcarving, metalworking, installation, kinetics, microelectronics and video. While it tends to be visually diverse, the friction between object and memory has been at the conceptual core of my sculptural practice since 1994. The images, objects and narratives of a particular place or experience undergo distortions each time they are represented, and it is these forms of abstraction I explore in my sculpture.
Earlier bodies of work have utilized the physical residue of my traveling – the souvenirs, postcards, snapshots and videotapes – as central elements of the sculpture, forcing them to reveal their own inadequacy, disengagement or transformation, to subvert the nostalgic ideal, or to disrupt the usual implications of value and validation in a cultural artifact. In later works I utilize the physicality of scale, motion, and orientation to extend and challenge the conventional representation of landscape. These pieces define specific places as indefinite spatial constructs that complicate the certainty of “being there,” and are part of a larger attempt to relate a fragmented travel narrative through architecture, landscapes and souvenirs.
I have been using IKEA products as raw material for several years, and continue to be interested in extracting conceptual value from it. I am currently exploring the relationship between the Modern avant-garde and contemporary consumer design culture. In my recent work, I attempt to articulate various points of connection and rupture between IKEA and the Bauhaus by constructing scale models of demolished or unrealized buildings by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius using “hacked” IKEA products such as tables, bookshelves and flooring.

أندريه كيرتيز
安德烈·凯尔泰斯
אנדרה קרטס
アンドレ·ケルテス
Distortions series

Adapting for distortion

Augmented Shadow
File Festival

Augmented Shadow is a design experiment producing an artificial shadow effect through the use of tangible objects, blocks, on a displayable tabletop interface. Its goal is to offer a new type of user-experience. The project plays on the fact that shadows present distorted silhouettes depending on the light. Augmented Shadows take the distortion effect into the realm of fantasy. Shadows display below the objects according to the physics of the real world. However, the shadows themselves transform the objects into houses, occupied by shadow creatures. By moving the blocks around the table the user sets off series of reactions within this new fantasy ecosystem. In this installation, the shadows exist both in a real and a virtual environment simultaneously. It thus brings augmented reality to the tabletop by way of a tangible interface. The shadow is an interface metaphor connecting the virtual world and users. Second, the unexpected user experience results from manipulating the users’ visual perceptions, expectations, and imagination to inspire re-perception and new understanding. Therefore, users can play with the shadows lying on the boundary between the real, virtual, and fantasy. Augmented Shadow utilizes this unique interface metaphor for interactive storytelling. Maximizing the magical amusement of AR, it is embedding an ecosystem where imaginary objects and organic beings co-exist while each of them influences on each other’s life-cycle, even though it is not in use by users. Light and shadow play critical roles in this world’s functions causing chain reactions between virtual people, trees, birds, and houses. A set of tangible blocks allows users to participate in the ecosystem. Users can influence on the system by playing with the blocks or observe the changes of the shadows as if kids were playing with an ant farm.