highlike

Ian Cheng

“Entropy Wrangler,” Ian Cheng’s 2013 exhibition at Off Vendome in Dusseldorf, was an excellent introduction to the logic behind this artist’s practice. The centerpiece was a large projection in the gallery’s basement described as “a live computer simulation that changes and evolves, forever.” Like all of Cheng’s simulations, it was programmed with motion capture techniques that register the physical movements of performers that are then translated onto digital bodies. These bodies coexist as individual entities subject to the laws and dynamics of a causal, virtual world: avatars of people and common objects, like hammers and basketball players, rendered in basic three-dimensional form and caught in the zero gravity of the digital screen

REMTY ELENGA

ALL THE SCREENS IN MY HOUSE

Her nearby environment and the observations she makes in it form the starting point for Remty Elenga (Los Angeles, 1987) in creating new work. In doing this she likes to explore how we give meaning to various layers of reality, looking for contradictions in time and place, the visible and invisible, between what is real and what isn`t.

Chris Cheung

No Longer Write – Mochiji
Powered by artificial intelligence’s Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), the collected works from ancient Chinese Calligraphers, including Wang Xizhi, Dong Qichang, Rao Jie, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Wang Yangming, as input data for deep learning. Strokes, scripts and style of the masters are blended and visualized in “Mochiji”, a Chinese literature work paying tribute to Wang Xizhi. Wang is famous for his hard work in the pursuit of Chinese calligraphy. He kept practicing calligraphy near the pond and eventually turned the pond for brush washing into an ink pond (Mochi). The artwork provides a platform for participants to write and record their handwriting. After a participant finished writing the randomly assigned script from “Mochiji”, the input process is completed and the deep learning process will begin. The newly collected scripts will be displayed on the screen like floating ink on the pond, and slowly merge with other collected data to present a newly learnt script. The ink pond imitates process of machine learning, which observes, compares and filters inputs through layers of image and text, to form a modern edition of “Mochiji”.
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不再写 – Mochiji
以人工智能的生成对抗网络(GANs)为动力,将王羲之、董其昌、饶捷、苏轼、黄廷健、王阳明等中国古代书法家的作品作为深度学习的输入数据。向王羲之致敬的中国文学作品《麻糬》,将大师的笔触、文字、风格融为一体,形象化。王先生以对中国书法的刻苦钻研而著称。他一直在池塘边练习书法,最终把洗笔池变成了墨池(麻糬)。艺术作品为参与者提供了一个书写和记录他们笔迹的平台。参与者完成“Mochiji”中随机分配的脚本后,输入过程完成,深度学习过程将开始。新收集到的脚本会像池塘上的浮墨一样显示在屏幕上,并与其他收集到的数据慢慢融合,呈现出新学到的脚本。墨池模仿机器学习的过程,通过图像和文本的层层观察、比较和过滤输入,形成现代版的“年糕”。

 

ANDY LOMAS

Morphogenetic Creations
Created by a mathematician, digital artist and Emmy award winning supervisor of computer generated effects – Andy Lomas, Morphogenetic Creations is a collection of works that explore the nature of complex forms that can be produced by digital simulation of growth systems. These pieces start with a simple initial form which is incrementally developed over time by adding iterative layers of complexity to the structure.The aim is to create structures emergently: exploring generic similarities between many different forms in nature rather than recreating any particular organism. In the process he is exploring universal archetypal forms that can come from growth processes rather than top-down externally engineered design.Programmed using C++ with CUDA, the series use a system of growth by deposition: small particles of matter are repeatedly deposited onto a growing structure to build incrementally over time. Rules are used to determine how new particles are created, and how they move before being deposited. Small changes to these rules can have dramatic effects on the final structure, in effect changing the environment in which the form is grown. To create these works, Andy uses the GPU as a compute device rather than as a display device. All the data is held in memory on the GPU and various kernel functions are called to do things like apply forces to the cells, make cells split, and to render the cells using ray-tracing. The simulations and rendering for each of the different animated structures within this piece take about 12 hours to run, Andy explains. By the end of the simulations there are over 50,000,000 cells in each structure.The Cellular Forms use a more biological model, representing a simplified system of cellular growth. Structures are created out of interconnected cells, with rules for the forces between cells, as well as rules for how cells accumulate internal nutrients. When the nutrient level in a cell exceeds a given threshold the cell splits into two, with both the parent and daughter cells reconnecting to their immediate neighbours. Many different complex organic structures are seen to arise from subtle variations on these rules, creating forms with strong reminiscences of plants, corals, internal organs and micro-organisms.

Walid Raad

The Atlas Group

In the late 1990s Raad created a fictional foundation called The Atlas Group in order to accommodate and contextualise his growing output of works documenting the Lebanese Civil Wars, generally dated 1975–1990. Within Atlas Group Raad produces artworks, addressing the infrastructural, societal, and psychic devastation wrought by the wars, which he then re-dates and attributes to an array of invented figures who in turn are said to have donated these works directly or by proxy to The Atlas Group archive. Regardless of original medium of the documents, Raad processes and outputs all of his work digitally consciously adding another layer of documentary intervention to his overarching fictional conceit.

Ulla Von Brandenburg

Seven Curtains

In ihrer ersten Einzelausstellung in Österreich zeigt Ulla von Brandenburg als Teil einer spezifisch auf den Hauptraum der Secession zugeschnittenen Installation ihren neuen Film “Die Straße”. Die Kamera des Schwarz-Weiß Films verfolgt in einer einzigen ungeschnittenen Einstellung die Aktionen der DarstellerInnen, die von Brandenburg in einer ephemeren Kulissenstadt aus weißen Leinwänden unter freiem Himmel in Szene gesetzt hat. Durch die stilisierende Szenerie, die geheimnisvollen und rätselhaften Rituale, welche die Interaktion der SchauspielerInnen untereinander bestimmen, und das Lied, das sie abwechselnd singen, haftet dem Film eine besondere Poesie an.Wie der Film so lotet auch die Installation die verschiedenen Wirklichkeitsebenen und Grenzbereiche zwischen dem Sein und Schein aus. Vor die Filmprojektion stellt von Brandenburg eine begehbare Bühnenkonstruktion und initiiert durch verschiedenfarbige Theatervorhänge, Treppen, Tribünen und ZuschauerInnenebenen ein Spiel mit dem Davor und Dahinter, Außen / Innen und letztlich eine Konfrontation der BetrachterInnen mit sich selbst und ihrer Rolle. Wie häufig im Werk Ulla von Brandenburgs dient der Vorhang als ein Mittel, um einen Übergang zu markieren von der realen Welt in jene des Theaters, in einen geistigen Raum, in dem die Imagination, Träume und das Unbewusste regieren und keine zeitlichen oder räumlichen Schranken existieren.

Iannis Xenakis

Oresteia Opera

Scored for soloists, mixed chorus, children’s chorus and chamber ensemble, Iannis Xenakis’ music for Oresteia has been cited as “ruggedly dissonant” since its 1987 première in Sicily. A wooden-planked stage is empty save three platforms, one each for the chamber players and percussion, another for a drummer on a separate perch. On a high screen to start, a loop video shows an almost-naked woman stretched out face down in a bathtub who is being hosed down uninterruptedly with water. No forewarning, and the clip changes to a thick forest, a small girl being physically abused by an adult man. While the same video images reappear at the end of the opera, but it’s nebulous soft-edged shapes –mood landscapes as it were – that are the usual backdrop for the 90-minute piece.

 

KAZUHIRO YAMANAKA

sound cloud
London-based designer kazuhiro yamanaka has created the ‘sound cloud’ a light-emitting quantum glass speaker system installation for saazs ‘a glass house’ program. the structure is composed of five interactive monolithic glass panels, formed with the intention of modelling the integration of innovative glass within architecture and design. the sound and light radiating from ‘sound cloud’ shift in unison, their synchronization may be altered by the viewer as they adjust their aural and visual experience by means of a touch-screen controller.
yamanaka aspired for the visitors to ‘be able to hear the sound move from one to another, jumping back and forth and echoing from the panels.’
a sound module is attached to each panel. as it vibrates,the three layers of glass move at a frequency, which creates optimum sound quality. the sound for the installation was developed by the france-based sound designer, gling-glang. yamanaka and gling-glang devised a soundscape by which ‘sound cloud’ visitors were able to sense the sculptural construction of the music in walking through the installation’s glass-paneled pathway.
the glass is outfitted with a light-emitting system known as ‘LED in glass’, invented by quantum glass. through this technology, the panels become a source of light. the ‘sound cloud’ is illuminated as the LED bars are fitted around the edge of the panel in order to direct beams of light through the edge of the extra clear glass sheet. as a result, light refraction occurs from the front side by means of a white enamel screen print on the opposite side.
yamanaka chose to slightly obscure the brightness of the glass sound system by creating a thin layer from millions of light dots, culminating in a cloud-like shape.

Pierre-Jean GILOUX

Metabolism _ Invisible Cities
Pierre-Jean Giloux’s first monograph, the publication extends the eponymous video tetralogy inspired by the Japanese utopian architectural movement: Metabolism (1960-70).
The films of the Invisible Cities cycle are portraits of Japanese cities, superimposing filmed and photographed images of everyday, social and urban reality, with virtual images.
The book explores the links in Pierre Jean Giloux’s work that connect four Japanese cities with a rich architectural past (Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kyoto). This jorney through Japan’s Megapolis traces the history of Japan and ends with the reconstruction of pavilions for the Osaka 70 Universal Exhibition and a virtual proposal for a smart city on the waters of Lake Biwa.
The metabolist utopia to which reference is constantly made in the work of Pierre Jean Giloux played a decisive role in the constitution of post-war Japanese cultural identity and had a notable influence on many contemporary architects.

video

KEITH ARMSTRONG

Shifting Intimacies
An interactive/media artwork for one person at a time. Each participant enters a large, dark space containing two circles of projected film imagery presented within an immersive sound environment. One image floats upon a disc of white sand and the other on a circle of white dust. Participants’ movements direct and affect the filmic image and spatialised audio experience. Throughout the work a layer of dust (an artificial life form) slowly eats away and infuses itself deep into the imagery and sound. Each person has 10 minutes alone with the work. Their movement through the space continually affects speed, quality, balance and flow within the work. At the end of the experience they are invited to climb a lit platform and cast dust back onto the images below.

Marleen Sleeuwits

INTERIOR N0. 58

Primarily working within abandoned office spaces, her process involves stripping the rooms down to their individual components, laying bare the layers found beneath the surfaces. She then re-assembles the room using materials found on-site, such as fluorescent tubes, paper towels, laminate, and tape, by adapting techniques of sculpture, painting and drawing.

Jeppe Hein

Breath from Pineal to Hara

Coloured neon rings light up in a specified sequence behind a two-way mirror, layered with reflections of the visitors and the surrounding space. Starting with the inner ring, the individual rings light up one after the other. Once all rings are illuminated, they switch off again from the outer ring to the inside. The sequence and colours are reminiscent of the breathing technique from Pineal to Hara and the artwork invites the viewer to breath accordingly. Combined with the two-way mirror in front of it, it seems to awaken viewers to the present moment and make the usually unconscious process of breathing conscious for a while. Breathe in. Breathe out.

YUNCHUL KIM

Dawns, Mine, Crystal

The exhibition title Dawns, Mine, Crystal – a direct reference to the work of Raymond Roussel, a pioneer of experimental writing – establishes an intersection of a ‘world of materials’ with complex layers of metaphors and symbols. For Kim, material is not merely a basis for creating forms and images, but a main protagonist for creation itself.

PixelJunk Eden

Q-Games
FILE FESTIVAL GAMES

In “PixelJunk Eden”, players, swing from abstract plant shapes to move about the garden, attacking the six-sided pollen carriers in order to gather the small pollen particles that can turn dormant seeds into activated seeds. The new seeds can be used to create new plants and gain further mobility in the garden.swing from abstract plant shapes to move about the garden, attacking the six-sided pollen carriers in order to gather the small pollen particles that can turn dormant seeds into activated seeds. The new seeds can be used to create new plants and gain further mobility in the garden.

YOUNG-HAE CHANG

장영혜중공업
Heavy Industries
dakota
I discuss how the poem controls the reader’s experience and how this control affects its possible interpretations. The control is mostly executed by limiting the reader’s freedom over reading. Reading time, direction and duration are determined by the poem. It is only possible to start the poem, but not rewind, stop or fast-forward it. Furthermore, the manipulation of speed affects reading in many ways. In the fast extreme the effect is illegibility, but more subtly used speed creates varieties of emphasis and de-emphasis. The effect of emphasis of this kind, I argue, creates different layers of readings and invites re-reading. These different readings require different cognitive modes, which mirror our contemporary reading habits. Not being in control of the reading process also leads to a scattered sense of unity, one of postmodernism’s essential traits. While reading the poem I also question why I read as I do, and by doing so I hope to present more general traits of how to approach digital literature.

KRISTA VAN DER NIET

Криста ван дер Ниет

The work of Krista van der Niet emerges from a dreamlike state of mind, whereby her imagination brings the things around her to life. She seems to glide along the lightness of things and grasps the beauty of the pure object. During the making process objects gain a metaphysical layer of meaning. She is the guiding factor for the viewpoint of her audience, in order to convey her perception. At this moment the sculptor becomes a photographer and you stand still together with her.

IANNIS XENAKIS

PITHOPRAKTA
During the 1950s and early 1960s‚ Iannis Xenakis represented an alternative avant­garde‚ with a radical approach to form and texture that rejected the serial mechanics of Boulez and Stockhausen‚ and involved a uniquely intense interpretation of ideas about probability and randomness. A world away from John Cage’s laid­back experiments[…] The two short orchestral works‚ Metastasis and Pithoprakta‚ are undoubtedly far more austere‚ more primitive in their overall effect‚ than the exuberant‚ hyperactive Eonta‚ whose ferociously demanding writing for piano and five brass players pulsates with the kind of creative energy that the orchestral pieces seek to suppress.

LAURA LYNN JANSEN AND THOMAS VAILLY

Inner Fashion
Inner Fashion questions the codes, rules and production technic of fashion. The human body is seen as a fluid, inflatable and mobile structure in which the tension of fabric remplace muscles. Each piece of cloth are made of 2 layers: an inner layer, XXS, highly strechable and an outer layer, XL and none strechable. Both layer are dressed on a zeppelin shaped balloon representing the human body. As the balloon fills up with air, the fabric of the inner layer stretches out and both fabric are touching each other.

STOCKHAUSEN

Cosmic Pulses
COSMIC PULSES is the 13th “hour” of Stockhausen’s originally-planned 24-part cycle KLANG (“SOUND”) which is based on the 24 hours of the day. This electronic work is composed of 24 layers of synthesizer-generated melodic material, with each layer having a different speed and pitch register. The layers enter one by one, starting from the lowest/slowest layer, and go up in sequence to the highest/fastest layer. After a period of several minutes where all 24 layers are active, the layers begin to individually drop out, again starting from the lowest layers and moving upwards (gradually leaving just the higher/faster layers). This “draw down” is about twice as fast as in the “build-up”.

DILLER + SCOFIDIO

The Blur Building (an architecture of atmosphere)
The Blur Building is a media pavilion for Swiss EXPO 2002 at the base of Lake Neuchatel in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland.From piles in the water, a tensegrity system of rectilinear struts and diagonal rods cantilevers out over the lake. Ramps and walkways weave through the tensegrity system, some of them providing a counterweight for the structure. The form is based on the work of Buckminster Fuller.The pavilion is made of filtered lake water shot as a fine mist through 13,000 fog nozzles creating an artificial cloud that measures 300 feet wide by 200 feet deep by 65 feet high. A built-in weather station controls fog output in response to shifting climatic conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind direction, and wind speed.The public can approach Blur via a ramped bridge. The 400 foot long ramp deposits visitors at the center of the fog mass onto a large open-air platform where movement is unregulated. Visual and acoustical references are erased along the journey toward the fog leaving only an optical “white-out” and the “white-noise” of pulsing water nozzles. Prior to entering the cloud, each visitor responds to a questionnaire/character profile and receives a “braincoat” (smart raincoat). The coat is used as protection from the wet environment and storage of the personality data for communication with the cloud’s computer network. Using tracking and location technologies, each visitor’s position can be identified and their character profiles compared to any other visitor.In the Glass Box, a space surrounded by glass on six sides, visitors experience a “sense of physical suspension only heightened by an occasional opening in the fog.” As visitors pass one another, their coats compare profiles and change color indicating the degree of attraction or repulsion, much like an involuntary blush – red for affinity, green for antipathy. The system allows interaction among 400 visitors at any time.Visitors can climb another level to the Angel Bar at the summit. The final ascent resembles the sensation of flight as one pierces through the cloud layer to the open sky. Here, visitors relax, take in the view, and choose from a large selection of commercial waters, municipal waters from world capitals, and glacial waters. At night, the fog will function as a dynamic and thick video screen.

Kian-Peng Ong

Coronado
File festival
“Coronado” was inspired by a visit to the Coronado beach in California, which was an awe inspiring moment never experienced in other beaches. The soundscape present in Coronado seemed to be coming from all directions with layers and layers of sound waves. I decided then that I would make a sound work to translate this experience. The sound installation is characterized by the interplay of the analog and digital sound sources which layers over one another, exploring the idea of a seascape. The center of the installation is an ocean drum controlled with mechanical arms that creates and simulates the sound of sea waves. This is picked up by the microphone, reprocessed through the computer and sent out to the 6 channel surround speakers in different time. The interplay and sense of endlessness in the layering the analog and digital are my interpretation and response to the wonderment I found in Coronado.