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Coralie Vogelaar

Random String of Emotions

Emotion recognition software analyzes our emotions by deconstructing our facial expressions into temporal segments that produce the expression, called Action Units (AU; developed by Paul Ekman), and breaking them down into percentages of six basic emotions, happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, and disgusted. In this video the artist uses this decoding system to turn the process around. Here – instead of detecting AUs – a computer is used to generate a random string of AUs. In this way complex and perhaps even nonexisting emotional expressions will be discovered. These randomly formed expressions, played in random order, are then analyzed again by professional emotion recognition software.

Lyota Yagi

Sound Sphere
An installation consisting of cassette tape wound around a spherical object and a device to play its sound. There is no beginning or end to the tape; rather, a small motor randomly moves the sphere as it sits atop the player, producing noise. The work varies in scale from installation to installation. Varying sizes of globes are covered with a length of time that is proportional to their surface area. When linear time is wound around a sphere, it is deprived of the relationship between place and time, and thus also loses its meaning (or in other words, causes meaning to arise).

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”。

 

Jonathan O’Hear, Martin Rautenstrauch & Timothy O’Hear

DAI – the Dancing Artificial Intelligence
DAI is an Artificial Intelligence artist. What this means is that it* thinks; it doesn’t follow a script or act randomly. In its first physical form, DAI is a performer and is inviting you to view its movement creation process. During the process DAI has been exploring its body and its environment, searching for ways to overcome some of the limitations that the physical world has imposed upon its virtual aspirations. This project is a reaction to the rapidly growing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in our lives. Simple versions of AI are already everywhere, and today we are at a turning point where the first machines capable of learning through experience, like us, are making their appearance. This raises all kinds of ethical and moral issues and we want to be involved in this debate in our own way.

Tundra

Nomad
Inspired by the concept of digital nomads of 21st-century and based on various pieces and algorithms from TUNDRA’s previous highly acclaimed audio-visual installations premiered across the globe from USA to China, NOMAD brings the polar atmosphere of different TUNDRA site-specific installations into a randomly changing sequence of visual themes and patterns triggered by live-performed sound.

Samuel Bianchini

At Present
Who has never contemplated drops of water seeking their path down a windowpane? Drops of water fall on a glass stele; they do not seem to be moving randomly, they wander, follow invisible bends and form letters and parts of letters; they provide glimpses of words […]

Jake Elwes

Cusp
A familiar childhood location on the Essex marshes is reframed by inserting images randomly generated by a neural network (GAN*) into this tidal landscape. Initially trained on a photographic dataset, the machine proceeds to learn the embedded qualities of different marsh birds, in the process revealing forms that fluctuate between species, with unanticipated variations emerging without reference to human systems of classification. Birds have been actively selected from among the images conceived by the neural network, and then combined into a single animation that migrates from bird to bird, accompanied by a soundscape of artificially generated bird song. The final work records these generated forms as they are projected, using a portable perspex screen, across the mudflats in Landermere Creek.

JORG NIEHAGE

Samplingplong
File Festival

Randomly selected, acoustically usable finds (electronic junk, relays, plastic toys,compressed air valves, pneumatically operated components) are combined with cables and tubes. Via a device controlled by computer, they are turned into interactive instruments. An improvised ensemble evolves, from which – per mouse-over and mouse-click -short miniature compositions of dense rhythmic clicks, hisses, whirs, hums and crackles can be elicited. A tapestry of sound bursts forth from the floral-like web of cables and tubes. The installation can be used by the projected mouse-cursor: rolling over the improvised instruments causes small sound events. Activating the installation by rolling over its parts enables the user to play spontaneous improvisations. Clicking these objects starts short programs of loop-like compositions. Small “techno-compositions en miniature”, rhythmic patterns of analog (or real) sounds; a physical low-tech simulation of electronic, digital music, perhaps an ironic comment on interactivity.

ROBERT STADLER

light installation at St. Paul

The first image in this post is from a work – the most interesting – by Nuit Blanche. Robert Stadler’s installation in the Saint-Paul Saint-Louis Church. Upon entering the church, through a side door, the public sees only large luminous spheres, which appear to be randomly arranged. When going to the center of the church, however, the spheres form a big question mark on the altar.

Naho Matsuda

EVERY THING EVERY TIME
The piece presents a running commentary on the activity of the city in which it’s located. The ‘poetry,’ which is created by an algorithm which randomly selects and rearranges the data collected from a number of site-specific points, and is posted on a website. The Pis pull the poetry from the website over 4G and then transmits the letter addresses via ethernet to the arduinos and then to the motors using I2C network protocol. The act of this then triggers the algorithm to generate a new poem.

Martina Menegon

when you are close to me i shiver
sound design: Alexander Martinz
“when you are close to me I shiver” is an algorithmically controlled live simulation, a real-time generated virtual reality that takes place in a version of the future in which humans, out of desperation, gather in masses on the last remaining piece of land. Inspired by the walrus scene in the documentary “Our Planet” narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Silverback Films, the project proposes an intense scenario encompassing our environmental and personal crises. It reflects on how we identify and connect ourselves in different realities while addressing the human condition in a world in ecological and therefore social crisis. On the tablets, virtual cameras scan the environment from various point of views, like surveillance drones. On the main screen, a similar camera randomly targets and focuses on different situations while a familiar voice-over narrates the tragic story.

LAB[AU]

f5x5x5
f5x5x5 is a kinetic light sculpture conceived of and realized by the belgian design studio lab[au]. the project was most recently installed in the basilique de saint denis in paris for nuit blanche 2009. the design consists of fixed and kinetic aluminum frames that can move randomly or be programmed for use as a low resolution display. the piece is designed as a framework, taking inspiration from software development
frameworks. in the case of the project, the framework is a five by five module which is repeated five times
to create the final form. one side of the work is white, while the other is black. the 125 pixel screen works on binary language and can transform captured data from the physical environment into kinetic actions.

The Chinese Room

Dan Pinchbeck, Robert Briscoe, Jessica Curry, Jacky Morgan, Nigel Carrington, Ben Andrews & Samuel Justice
Dear Esther

“A deserted island… a lost man… memories of a fatal crash… a book written by a dying explorer.”

“Dear Esther” is a ghost story, told using first-person gaming technologies. Rather than traditional game-play the focus here is on exploration, uncovering the mystery of the island, of who you are and why you are here. Fragments of story are randomly uncovered when exploring the various locations of the island, making each journey a unique experience.

file festival

NOVA JIANG

نوفا جيانغ
Ideogenetic Machine
“Ideogenetic Machine” is an interactive installation that incorporates portraits of participants into an algorithmically generated comic book. A camera captures the portrait live while an algorithm transforms the photographic image into a “line drawing”. Face detection is utilized to insert-code generated blank speech bubbles into the narrative. The software creates never repeating compositions using a set of rules that approximate the compositional decisions made by a human comic book author. The comic is projected live, and consists of the algorithmically processed portraits as well as randomly chosen story elements from a database of drawings. The story elements are drawn by the artist, mostly illustrating speculative narratives based on current news and events. A participant can email him or herself the finished comic as a PDF file.

FILE FESTIVAL

Zimoun

150 prepared dc-motors, 270kg wood, 210m string wire

The sounds of 150 mechanical seesaws striking the floor of a former church in Austria reverberate around its nave in this installation by Swiss artist Zimoun (+ movie).Named after the materials used in its creation, Zimoun’s latest installation is titled: 150 prepared dc-motors, 270kg wood, 210m string wire.The artist used the wood to build 150 simple seesaws, made from long batons that pivot vertically on short upright lengths.Orientated in different directions, these are scattered around the nave and transepts of Klangraum Krems – a Gothic church converted into an events space in the Austrian town of Krems an der Donau.Each seesaw incorporates a motor that powers a thin metal arm, which is attached to one end of the rocking wooden element by piece of wire.When the motor is activated the arm flicks back, pulling the string taught and causing the end of the wood to strike the ground.“Over a simple mechanical system the wooden laths are set in motion and randomly falling back to the floor,” said Zimoun.

JONAS BOHATSCH

vinyl+ • Expanded Timecode Vinyl
FILE FESTIVAL

A processing sketch is used to generate virtual objects being projected on white timecode-vinyl. These objects can either be placed randomly or by the user via the computer keyboard or an external midi controller. If the record starts to turn, the virtual objects will move with the speed of the record. If a virtual object touches the turntables needle, it will trigger an animation and the playback of a sound. This is possible because the vinyl’s timecode provides information about the record’s playback speed and the position of the needle, thus enabling to synchronize the movement of the turntable with the movement of the projection and to calculate collisions of virtual objects with the turntable’s needle. In vinyl+, an analog medium at the same time acts as a carrier and an interface for virtual audio- and video-objects.