TRANSFORMIRROR

Daito Manabe and Kyle McDonald

FILE SÃO PAULO 2025: SYNTHETIKA – Art and Technology – Installations
Electronic Language International Festival

Transformirror – Japan |  United States

When everything is imagined by AI—from music and images to prompts and titles—what’s it like to look in the mirror? This seminal study of real-time image generation, made possible in 2023 with Stable Diffusion XL-Turbo and Stable Audio, explores the future of media and interactivity. Can we better understand these systems by interacting with them physically, in real time?

BIO

Kyle McDonald creates immersive audiovisual installations and performances using computer vision, machine learning, and creative programming techniques to explore connections and shared futures between human beings. Daito Manabe combines technology and physical expression in collaborations such as Perfume and ELEVENPLAY with MIKIKO. Founder of Rhizomatiks, he has directed projects such as the closing ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Daily Diffusion 53 & 86

Callahan Indovina

FILE SÃO PAULO 2025: SYNTHETIKA – Art and Technology – Shorts Films AI
Electronic Language International Festival

Daily Diffusion 53 & 86 – United States

The Daily Diffusion series by Callahan Indovina was a three-month project launched in 2024, as Generative AI tools and various plat forms to support the automation of animations and workflows were still emergent. The YouTube series aimed to provide workflows, prompts, and examples on how to utilize Stable Diffusion and various enhancements to create psychedelic animations. Like many of his works, the Daily Diffusion series took inspiration from Calalhan’s experiences within his dreams.

Music: https://www.mubert.com

BIO

Callahan Indovina is a spir itual and psychedelic artist from California’s Sierra Nevada. His artistic expression combines traditional digital composition techniques with innovative practices such as generative AI. His creations, described as super natural and dreamlike, reflect his surreal and transcendental vision, drawn from experiences within his dreams

LOKI

Jia-Rey Chang

FILE SÃO PAULO 2025: SYNTHETIKA – Art and Technology – Installations
Electronic Language International Festival

Loki – Taiwan

Loki is an interactive AI artwork inspired by the mischievous Norse god. Unlike obedient AI, Loki responds playfully and unpredictably, reflecting users’ attitudes—arrogance meets sharpness, modesty earns encouragement. It prompts critical thinking about AI’s reliability, biases, and neutrality. By engaging with Loki, users explore whether AI can truly be trusted. Dare to question!

BIO

Jia-Rey Chang is an artist/designer/researcher/educator focusing on immersive spatial interaction design. Received his Ph.D. in interactive architecture at TU Delft and is now a lecturer in the Medialab at Queen’s University Belfast UK investigating Games/Emerging Technologies in his creative research, crossing creative coding, speculative design, AI, and VR.

www.archgary.com

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

Transparency

FILE 2024 | Interator – Sound Synthetics
International Electronic Language Festival
Dennis Schöneberg – Transparenza – Germany

Music controls camera settings, the weight of prompts, and the creativity of the AI. The objective of the project is to create a symbiosis between music and images, in which both elements complement and enhance each other. By directly linking musical parameters to AI creative processes, a unique audiovisual experience is created.

Bio

Dennis Schöneberg, German AI artist, data science student and developer of open source AI models, integrates his passion for electronic music into his creative endeavors. Merging art with technology, he explores the synergy between creativity and artificial intelligence.

Credits

Music: Transparenza by Michael Mayer & Reinhard Voigt

Hash2ash
Installation touches on the themes of selfie-culture, and the fear of permanently losing the digital records of our lives due to technical failures, impermanence of data storage, or simply because of the obsolescence of the old digital file formats. Even with such compulsive overproduction of the images of ourselves we might end up with nothing but the blank memories of our past. Even the data on ourselves will eventually fade away… The installation consist of the display that prompts you to take a selfie on your phone, which it renders in digital particles on its large 1×1 meter screen. Then a moment later, your face scatters and falls apart and the real black gravel starts to fall at the bottom of the screen in perfect synchrony with the digital simulation. Gradually a dark mound builds up at the foot of the construction.

オラファー·エリアソン
اولافور الياسون
奥拉维尔·埃利亚松
אולאפור אליאסון
ОЛАФУР ЭЛИАССОН
Visual mediation
Eliasson constructions, at once eccentric and highly geometric, use multicolored washes, focused projections of light, mirrors, and elements such as water, stone, and moss to shift the viewer’s perception of place and self. By transforming the gallery into a hybrid space of nature and culture, Eliasson prompts an intensive engagement with the world and offers a fresh consideration of everyday life.

calm

Made from a seemingly random selection of materials sourced from nearby construction sites, Shanghai-based artist collective MadeIn Company’s installation at Offsite prompts us to think about perception. At first glance Calm appears to be debris from a recent disaster, demolition or construction project, but upon closer inspection the pile of rubble slowly undulates, simulating a mirage. In a state of constant flux, this site-specific sculpture evokes the endlessly changing cityscape that has become typical in present day China and elsewhere. Calm’s ambiguity, along with its unexpected ability to move, provokes us to question ways of observing, believing and understanding facts, and reminds us that the truth often differs from what it seems.

Crystal Aqua Trees
Installed in Sony Square in Tokyo and on display until January 14, the ‘Crystal Aqua Trees’ is a crystal work of art inspired by the concept of a fountain that can be seen as a spray of water as well as a Christmas tree. Designed by Torafu Architects, the project was inspired by the Trevi fountain in Rome, the “Ai no Izumi” (Fountain of Love) charity drive, which has been held by Sony every year since 1968. For this edition, the architects proposed a new embodiment as an interactive installation. More images and architects’ description after the break.In response to changes in the landscape of the street and the actions of people, the illumination will play beautiful music in harmony with a gorgeous light display. The movement of people is picked up by a sensor camera, which prompts the pillars of light illuminated by LEDs to change colors to create a glimmering structure.Whenever coins are deposited in the crystal donation box placed in front of the square, the installation responds by switching to a special performance, as if acknowledging the contributions made. Like water in a fountain, the polished black floor surface of the stage reflects the illumination, creating a wonderful scene in the middle of the streets of Ginza.