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ARS ELECTRONICA ARCHIVE – AI LAB

The European ARTificial Intelligence Lab (AI Lab) is a follow-up project to the European Digital Art and Science Network, a creative collaboration between scientific institutions, Ars Electronica and cultural partners throughout Europe that unites science and digital art. The European ARTificial Intelligence Lab follows on from this and addresses visions, expectations and fears that we associate with artificial intelligence. The consortium consists of 13 cultural institutions from Europe with Ars Electronica as coordinator. This online archive provides an overview of all activities carried out during the project's lifetime from 2018 to 2021. It also provides information about the network itself, the residency artists and juries, and the project partners involved. The AI Lab is co-funded by the EU program "Creative Europe (2014-2020)" and by the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.

AI Lab Exhibition by Ars Electronica 2021

AI Lab Exhibition by Ars Electronica

What visions, expectations and fears do we associate with the idea of a future, all-encompassing artificial intelligence? The European ARTificial Intelligence Lab – AI Lab for short – initiated by Ars Electronica in 2018 includes 14 renowned institutions from the fields of art and science throughout Europe. The network is aimed at artists who work with AI applications and/or reflect on their use and impact on our society. In the AI Lab Exhibition we show a selection of these works.

Presented works:
Cypress Trees – Anna Ridler (UK), Caroline Sinders (US)
Codex Virtualis – Interspecifics (INT)
Made to Measure – Laokoon (DE)
Moon Rabbit – Sarah Petkus & Mark J. Koch (US)
The Wandering Mind – slow immediate (CN/US)
Triopic Spectacle – PDNB (Postdigital Neobaroque) (AT/DE/IT/GB)
Baitul Ma’mur: House of Angels - Joe Davis (US), Sarah Khan (PK)
The Museum of Edible Earth - masharu (RU/NL)
Transformation of Scenery - Yoichi Ochiai (JP)
• Info (EN): AI Lab Exhibition
Linz, In Kepler's Gardens
09.09.2021 – 12.09.2021
• Info (DE): AI Lab Ausstellung
Linz, In Kepler's Gardens
09.09.2021 – 12.09.2021
Year of creation
2021

Urls
Exhibition Website: https://ars.electronica.art/newdigitaldeal/en/ailab-exhibition/
AI Lab Publikation (with Descriptions of all the exhibited projects and Bios of all the artists): https://archive.aec.at/ailab/showmode/92/

Start:
Sep 09, 2021
End:
Sep 12, 2021

Info:
• Internal Project: AI Lab Online Archiv

European ARTificial Intelligence Lab, Ars Electronica
Cypress Trees, a beginning Anna Ridler (UK), Caroline Sinders (US)
How can AI help us to face the climate crisis and other entwined challenges? This machine-learning-generated moving image piece gives insights into the complexity of data sets and raises questions about deforestation and the politics of climate change, memory and loss. Anna Ridler and Caroline Sinders created a special dataset of the Bald Cypress on the gulf coast of the USA, where both have family ties. These trees, which can live thousands of years, are currently considered to be “threatened” by climate change.

Photo: tom mesic
Cypress Trees, a beginning / Anna Ridler (UK), Caroline Sinders (US)
Photo showing the project "Cypress Trees, a beginning" by Anna Ridler (UK) and Caroline Sinders (US) at the Theme Exhibition "Digital && Life".

How can AI help us to face the climate crisis and other entwined challenges? This machine-learning-generated moving image piece gives insights into the complexity of data sets and raises questions about deforestation and the politics of climate change, memory and loss. Anna Ridler and Caroline Sinders created a special dataset of the Bald Cypress on the gulf coast of the USA, where both have family ties. These trees, which can live thousands of years, are currently considered to be “threatened” by climate change.

Photo: tom mesic
Moon Rabbit / Sarah Petkus (US), Mark J. Koch (US)
In a research and development phase lasting several months, Sarah Petkus and Mark J. Koch attempt to teach a suite of artificial intelligences to recognize familiar shapes and objects in images of star clusters, planetary surfaces, and other celestial bodies. Moon Rabbit aims to help form a team of humans and “AIs” whose focus is to discover meaning in the abstract. And maybe the AIs will even develop personalities and opinions of their own.

Credit: Ars Electronica - Martin Hieslmair
Moon Rabbit / Sarah Petkus (US), Mark J. Koch (US)
Since time immemorial, we humans have looked up to the heavens and wondered about the nature of our existence. And who knows – maybe one day we might even discuss this fundamental question with our digital offspring? If so, will they be able to help us discover answers in the patterns and data hidden in the starry sky? In a research and development phase lasting several months, Sarah Petkus and Mark J. Koch attempt to teach a suite of artificial intelligences to recognize familiar shapes and objects in images of star clusters, planetary surfaces, and other celestial bodies. Moon Rabbit aims to help form a team of humans and “AIs” whose focus is to discover meaning in the abstract. And maybe the AIs will even develop personalities and opinions of their own.

Photo: Tom Mesic
Moon Rabbit / Sarah Petkus (US), Mark J. Koch (US)
Since time immemorial, we humans have looked up to the heavens and wondered about the nature of our existence. And who knows – maybe one day we might even discuss this fundamental question with our digital offspring? If so, will they be able to help us discover answers in the patterns and data hidden in the starry sky? In a research and development phase lasting several months, Sarah Petkus and Mark J. Koch attempt to teach a suite of artificial intelligences to recognize familiar shapes and objects in images of star clusters, planetary surfaces, and other celestial bodies. Moon Rabbit aims to help form a team of humans and “AIs” whose focus is to discover meaning in the abstract. And maybe the AIs will even develop personalities and opinions of their own.

Photo: Tom Mesic
Moon Rabbit / Sarah Petkus (US), Mark J. Koch (US)
Since time immemorial, we humans have looked up to the heavens and wondered about the nature of our existence. And who knows – maybe one day we might even discuss this fundamental question with our digital offspring? If so, will they be able to help us discover answers in the patterns and data hidden in the starry sky? In a research and development phase lasting several months, Sarah Petkus and Mark J. Koch attempt to teach a suite of artificial intelligences to recognize familiar shapes and objects in images of star clusters, planetary surfaces, and other celestial bodies. Moon Rabbit aims to help form a team of humans and “AIs” whose focus is to discover meaning in the abstract. And maybe the AIs will even develop personalities and opinions of their own.

Photo: tom mesic
Moon Rabbit / Sarah Petkus (US), Mark J. Koch (US)
Since time immemorial, we humans have looked up to the heavens and wondered about the nature of our existence. And who knows – maybe one day we might even discuss this fundamental question with our digital offspring? If so, will they be able to help us discover answers in the patterns and data hidden in the starry sky? In a research and development phase lasting several months, Sarah Petkus and Mark J. Koch attempt to teach a suite of artificial intelligences to recognize familiar shapes and objects in images of star clusters, planetary surfaces, and other celestial bodies. Moon Rabbit aims to help form a team of humans and “AIs” whose focus is to discover meaning in the abstract. And maybe the AIs will even develop personalities and opinions of their own.

Photo: Tom Mesic
Codex Virtualis / Interspecifics (INT)
Photo showing the project "Codex Virtualis" by Interspecifics (INT) at the Theme Exhibition "Digital && Life".

Codex Virtualis is an artistic research framework oriented towards the generation of an evolving taxonomic collection of hybrid bacterial-AI organisms. With a subtle echo of endosymbiotic theory, we propose a symbolic formulation of a style transfer machine learning environment as a host in which to merge bacterial/archaea time-lapse microscopy footage along with multidimensional cellular automata computational models as endosymbionts, all under the orchestration of an autonomous generative non-adversarial network architecture. Our aim is to encounter novel algorithmically driven aesthetic representations tagged with a unique morphotype and genotype-like encoding, and that are articulated around a speculative narrative encompassing unconventional origins of life on earth and elsewhere.

Credit: Ars Electronica - Robert Bauernhansl
Codex Virtualis Interspecifics (INT)
Codex Virtualis is an artistic research framework oriented towards the generation of an evolving taxonomic collection of hybrid bacterial-AI organisms. With a subtle echo of endosymbiotic theory, we propose a symbolic formulation of a style transfer machine learning environment as a host in which to merge bacterial/archaea time-lapse microscopy footage along with multidimensional cellular automata computational models as endosymbionts, all under the orchestration of an autonomous generative non-adversarial network architecture. Our aim is to encounter novel algorithmically driven aesthetic representations tagged with a unique morphotype and genotype-like encoding, and that are articulated around a speculative narrative encompassing unconventional origins of life on earth and elsewhere.

Photo: tom mesic
Made to Measure / Group Laokoon (DE): Cosima Terrasse (FR), Moritz Riesewieck (DE), Hans Block (DE)
For an artistic data experiment, the group Laokoon created a doppelganger of a person they didn’t know using only their personal Google data. Five years of this person’s life were reconstructed and filmed in detail on a large theatre stage. A few months later, the original and her datafied double met. The spectacular and one-of-a-kind experiment becomes tangible on an interactive storytelling website, where visitors can experience how far-reaching the insights into our inner lives and our most intimate secrets are, which we grant Google, Facebook & Co. every day. Tapping into a novel and complex digital narrative form, the cross-media project MADE TO MEASURE, which also includes a TV documentary, sheds light on how tech companies use the collected data of billions of people to turn their weaknesses, insecurities, illnesses and potential for addiction into profit.

Photo: vog.photo
Made to Measure / Group Laokoon (DE): Cosima Terrasse (FR), Moritz Riesewieck (DE), Hans Block (DE)
For an artistic data experiment, the group Laokoon created a doppelganger of a person they didn’t know using only their personal Google data. Five years of this person’s life were reconstructed and filmed in detail on a large theatre stage. A few months later, the original and her datafied double met. The spectacular and one-of-a-kind experiment becomes tangible on an interactive storytelling website, where visitors can experience how far-reaching the insights into our inner lives and our most intimate secrets are, which we grant Google, Facebook & Co. every day. Tapping into a novel and complex digital narrative form, the cross-media project MADE TO MEASURE, which also includes a TV documentary, sheds light on how tech companies use the collected data of billions of people to turn their weaknesses, insecurities, illnesses and potential for addiction into profit.

Photo: vog.photo
Made to Measure / Group Laokoon (DE): Cosima Terrasse (FR), Moritz Riesewieck (DE), Hans Block (DE)
For an artistic data experiment, the group Laokoon created a doppelganger of a person they didn’t know using only their personal Google data. Five years of this person’s life were reconstructed and filmed in detail on a large theatre stage. A few months later, the original and her datafied double met. The spectacular and one-of-a-kind experiment becomes tangible on an interactive storytelling website, where visitors can experience how far-reaching the insights into our inner lives and our most intimate secrets are, which we grant Google, Facebook & Co. every day. Tapping into a novel and complex digital narrative form, the cross-media project MADE TO MEASURE, which also includes a TV documentary, sheds light on how tech companies use the collected data of billions of people to turn their weaknesses, insecurities, illnesses and potential for addiction into profit.

Photo: vog.photo
The Wandering Mind / Gershon Dublon (US), Xin Liu (CN), with guest artist Xiao Xiao (US/FR)
Impressions of "Wandering Mind" by Gershon Dublon (US), Xin Liu (CN), with guest artist Xiao Xiao (US/FR) at the Ars Electronica Festival 2021.

The Wandering Mind is an AI-powered performance platform for shaping dreams with the sounds of our world. Sampling tiny fragments of sound from tens of thousands of global field recordings found online, the system generates a winding sound journey for sleeping and meditating audiences.
In our curated performances, group naps and guided mind-wanderings, dream guides convene a collective action of sleeping together. Drawing largely from found sound of parks and public spaces across the world, we respond to the past years, in which stay-at-home orders have torn old social fabrics and mass uprisings have constituted new ones, and through which digital and physical public space has played a pivotal and transformative role.
In this special presentation, entitled “Field Sketches from Imaginary Travels,” Wandering Mind guest performer Xiao Xiao combines the live micro-sampled soundscapes with improvisational theremin, keyboard, and vocals. Like an artist on a nature stroll who copies interesting visual forms as gestures in a sketchbook, Xiao weaves impromptu compositions of sonic gestures by transcribing and elaborating seeds from the ambient auditory surroundings.

Credit: vog.photo
The Wandering Mind / Gershon Dublon (US), Xin Liu (CN), with guest artist Xiao Xiao (US/FR)
Impressions of "Wandering Mind" by Gershon Dublon (US), Xin Liu (CN), with guest artist Xiao Xiao (US/FR) at the Ars Electronica Festival 2021.

The Wandering Mind is an AI-powered performance platform for shaping dreams with the sounds of our world. Sampling tiny fragments of sound from tens of thousands of global field recordings found online, the system generates a winding sound journey for sleeping and meditating audiences.
In our curated performances, group naps and guided mind-wanderings, dream guides convene a collective action of sleeping together. Drawing largely from found sound of parks and public spaces across the world, we respond to the past years, in which stay-at-home orders have torn old social fabrics and mass uprisings have constituted new ones, and through which digital and physical public space has played a pivotal and transformative role.
In this special presentation, entitled “Field Sketches from Imaginary Travels,” Wandering Mind guest performer Xiao Xiao combines the live micro-sampled soundscapes with improvisational theremin, keyboard, and vocals. Like an artist on a nature stroll who copies interesting visual forms as gestures in a sketchbook, Xiao weaves impromptu compositions of sonic gestures by transcribing and elaborating seeds from the ambient auditory surroundings.

Credit: tom mesic
Triopic Spectacle / PDNB (Postdigital Neobaroque) (AT/DE/IT/GB)
As part of an ongoing process of decentralisation and democratisation of the digital, Triopic Spectacle endeavours to flatten the hierarchies between the real and the potential–a radical concept initiated by 17th century baroque thought.

Credit: Ars Electronica - Martin Hieslmair
Triopic Spectacle / PDNB (Postdigital Neobaroque) (AT/DE/IT/GB)
Impressions of the Project "Triopic Spectacle" by PDNB (Postdigital Neobaroque) (AT/DE/IT/GB) at the "Digital && Life" Exhibition at the Ars Electronica Festival 2021.

As part of an ongoing process of decentralisation and democratisation of the digital, "Triopic Spectacle" endeavours to flatten the hierarchies between the real and the potential–a radical concept initiated by 17th century baroque thought. The transmedial installation challenges the outmoded, myopic, binary thinking of local/global, 1s/0s, individual/collective, real/virtual, analog/digital, natural/artificial by establishing a series of two-way windows, bridges, interfaces, portals and glitches between three ‘triopic’ domains: ‘real reality’, comprised of physical, robotically 3D-printed architectures to be experienced and interacted with by passers-by; ‘mixed reality’, a virtual, spatial, boundless and immersive ML-developed VR space for augmented visitors (with VR goggles); and ‘virtual reality’, an interactive and online-based social space for online users to interact with the abovementioned realities.

Credit: tom mesic
Baitul Ma’mur: House of Angels / Joe Davis (US), Sarah Khan (PK)
Photo showing the Project "Baitul Ma’mur: House of Angels" by Joe Davis (US) and Sarah Khan (PK) at the Theme Exhibition. A project to keep 2.417 quintillion angels on the head of a pin. The exhibitors had been inspired by repeating geometries and nested calligraphies of Islamic art to demonstrate a similarly recursive scheme for DNA information-keeping.

Credit: vog.photo
Baitul Ma’mur: House of Angels / Joe Davis (US), Sarah Khan (PK)
Ours has been a project to keep 2.417 quintillion angels on the head of a pin. We have been inspired by repeating geometries and nested calligraphies of Islamic art to demonstrate a similarly recursive scheme for DNA information-keeping.

Credit: Ars Electronica - Martin Hieslmair
Baitul Ma’mur: House of Angels Joe Davis (US), Sarah Khan (PK)
Ours has been a project to keep 2.417 quintillion angels on the head of a pin. We have been inspired by repeating geometries and nested calligraphies of Islamic art to demonstrate a similarly recursive scheme for DNA information-keeping. DNA molecules having 3 base-pairs or more simultaneously hold 3 unique numbers, and a coding strategy based on these numbers combines several different layers of informational symmetry. Our example is a molecule holding multiple encodings of “Subhan Allah” (سبحان الله ), an Arabic phrase said to have been repeated for more than 1000 years as an invocation associated with creating angels. Tradition holds that any number of angels can be generated in this way and that it makes no difference whether the phrase is spoken, written, or caused to be printed. Using technology to reliably synthesize DNA, we created iterations of “Subhan Allah” in astronomical numbers of DNA molecules to show that symbolism about changing the demographic of heaven can be elegantly aligned with capabilities for high density information storage in DNA. Each of our encoded DNA molecules contain 19.5 repeats of “Subhan Allah” so that a 1mm layer of DNA on the 0.75mm head of an average straight pin can hold over two hundred million billion angels. We hope our gesture of generating so many angels may provide comfort in times of a pandemic that has claimed millions of lives. This has been an exercise in bridge building, between art, mathematics, science, and spirituality across multiple expressions. We see humanity as one tribe, confronting the chaotic forces of nature, the accumulating toll of human impacts on our shared environment, and the problematic nature of our “best intentions,” behind which all too often lurk the terribly violent and destructive impulses that have shaped human history.  
2.417 quintillion (2.417 X 10^18) angels in a 1mm layer of DNA on the head of a typical straight pin:
2.417 quintillion angels = 6E23 x 1 x pi x 0.752 x 1E-3/(330 x 258/19.5)

Photo: Tom Mesic
Baitul Ma’mur: House of Angels / Joe Davis (US), Sarah Khan (PK)
Ours has been a project to keep 2.417 quintillion angels on the head of a pin. We have been inspired by repeating geometries and nested calligraphies of Islamic art to demonstrate a similarly recursive scheme for DNA information-keeping. DNA molecules having 3 base-pairs or more simultaneously hold 3 unique numbers, and a coding strategy based on these numbers combines several different layers of informational symmetry. Our example is a molecule holding multiple encodings of “Subhan Allah” (سبحان الله ), an Arabic phrase said to have been repeated for more than 1000 years as an invocation associated with creating angels. Tradition holds that any number of angels can be generated in this way and that it makes no difference whether the phrase is spoken, written, or caused to be printed. Using technology to reliably synthesize DNA, we created iterations of “Subhan Allah” in astronomical numbers of DNA molecules to show that symbolism about changing the demographic of heaven can be elegantly aligned with capabilities for high density information storage in DNA. Each of our encoded DNA molecules contain 19.5 repeats of “Subhan Allah” so that a 1mm layer of DNA on the 0.75mm head of an average straight pin can hold over two hundred million billion angels. We hope our gesture of generating so many angels may provide comfort in times of a pandemic that has claimed millions of lives. This has been an exercise in bridge building, between art, mathematics, science, and spirituality across multiple expressions. We see humanity as one tribe, confronting the chaotic forces of nature, the accumulating toll of human impacts on our shared environment, and the problematic nature of our “best intentions,” behind which all too often lurk the terribly violent and destructive impulses that have shaped human history.  
2.417 quintillion (2.417 X 10^18) angels in a 1mm layer of DNA on the head of a typical straight pin:
2.417 quintillion angels = 6E23 x 1 x pi x 0.752 x 1E-3/(330 x 258/19.5)

Photo: Tom Mesic
The Museum of Edible Earth / masharu (RU/NL)
Geophagy is the scientific name for the practice of eating earth and earth-like substances such as clay and chalk. Eating earth is an ancient practice and is an integral part of many cultures across the world. The Museum of Edible Earth is a cross-disciplinary project with a core collection of earth samples which are eaten for various reasons by different people across the globe. It invites the audience to physically question our relationship to the environment and the Earth and to review our knowledge about food and cultural traditions using creative thinking. The Museum of Edible Earth addresses the following questions: What stands behind earth-eating traditions? Where does the edible earth come from? What are the possible benefits and dangers of eating earth? What engagement are we as humans establishing with our environment and non-humans? The Museum of Edible Earth has more than 400 edible earth samples, mostly clay, such as kaolin and bentonite as well as chalk, limestone, volcanic rock, diatomaceous earth, and topsoil.

Photo: vog.photo
The Museum of Edible Earth / masharu (RU/NL)
Geophagy is the scientific name for the practice of eating earth and earth-like substances such as clay and chalk. Eating earth is an ancient practice and is an integral part of many cultures across the world. The Museum of Edible Earth is a cross-disciplinary project with a core collection of earth samples which are eaten for various reasons by different people across the globe. It invites the audience to physically question our relationship to the environment and the Earth and to review our knowledge about food and cultural traditions using creative thinking. The Museum of Edible Earth addresses the following questions: What stands behind earth-eating traditions? Where does the edible earth come from? What are the possible benefits and dangers of eating earth? What engagement are we as humans establishing with our environment and non-humans? The Museum of Edible Earth has more than 400 edible earth samples, mostly clay, such as kaolin and bentonite as well as chalk, limestone, volcanic rock, diatomaceous earth, and topsoil.

Photo: Tom Mesic
The Museum of Edible Earth / masharu (RU/NL)
Geophagy is the scientific name for the practice of eating earth and earth-like substances such as clay and chalk. Eating earth is an ancient practice and is an integral part of many cultures across the world. The Museum of Edible Earth is a cross-disciplinary project with a core collection of earth samples which are eaten for various reasons by different people across the globe. It invites the audience to physically question our relationship to the environment and the Earth and to review our knowledge about food and cultural traditions using creative thinking. The Museum of Edible Earth addresses the following questions: What stands behind earth-eating traditions? Where does the edible earth come from? What are the possible benefits and dangers of eating earth? What engagement are we as humans establishing with our environment and non-humans? The Museum of Edible Earth has more than 400 edible earth samples, mostly clay, such as kaolin and bentonite as well as chalk, limestone, volcanic rock, diatomaceous earth, and topsoil.

Photo: Ars Electronica - Martin Hieslmair
The Museum of Edible Earth / masharu (RU/NL)
Geophagy is the scientific name for the practice of eating earth and earth-like substances such as clay and chalk. Eating earth is an ancient practice and is an integral part of many cultures across the world. The Museum of Edible Earth is a cross-disciplinary project with a core collection of earth samples which are eaten for various reasons by different people across the globe. It invites the audience to physically question our relationship to the environment and the Earth and to review our knowledge about food and cultural traditions using creative thinking. The Museum of Edible Earth addresses the following questions: What stands behind earth-eating traditions? Where does the edible earth come from? What are the possible benefits and dangers of eating earth? What engagement are we as humans establishing with our environment and non-humans? The Museum of Edible Earth has more than 400 edible earth samples, mostly clay, such as kaolin and bentonite as well as chalk, limestone, volcanic rock, diatomaceous earth, and topsoil.

Photo: Ars Electronica - Martin Hieslmair
The Museum of Edible Earth / masharu (RU/NL)
Geophagy is the scientific name for the practice of eating earth and earth-like substances such as clay and chalk. Eating earth is an ancient practice and is an integral part of many cultures across the world. The Museum of Edible Earth is a cross-disciplinary project with a core collection of earth samples which are eaten for various reasons by different people across the globe. It invites the audience to physically question our relationship to the environment and the Earth and to review our knowledge about food and cultural traditions using creative thinking. The Museum of Edible Earth addresses the following questions: What stands behind earth-eating traditions? Where does the edible earth come from? What are the possible benefits and dangers of eating earth? What engagement are we as humans establishing with our environment and non-humans? The Museum of Edible Earth has more than 400 edible earth samples, mostly clay, such as kaolin and bentonite as well as chalk, limestone, volcanic rock, diatomaceous earth, and topsoil.

Photo: Ars Electronica - Martin Hieslmair
Transformation of Scenery / Yoichi Ochiai (JP)
Photo showing the Project "Transformation of Scenery" by Yoichi Ochiai (JP) at the Ars Electronica Festival 2021.

In order to mediate between the massive landscapes composed by original nature and the massless landscapes described by digital nature, Yoichi Ochiai continues to create artwork for transforming scenery. Between mass and masslessness, he is searching for a longing for mass and a sentiment for pixels. This work was originally created with the aim of transforming the horizons seen from the city. Light and images are added to the line that forms the boundary between sky and earth. Using a computational machine and a display device, the work depicts the “transformation of materialized nature” on the borderline of ideas visible from the observatory location. Carrying the concept further, a digital installation is created in various spaces by deploying mass-less images at the scale of the body as interactions with a large-scale transparent display to mediate various landscapes.

This installation employs the context of space as a borrowed landscape, and by displaying digital images without mass, it highlights the materializing potential of space and continues to mediate between the image and the material world. With this installation, the artist explores the possibilities of images floating in space, expressing our innate craving for physicality and the division between the physical and the digital.

Credit: tom mesic
Transformation of Scenery / Yoichi Ochiai (JP)
Photo showing the Project "Transformation of Scenery" by Yoichi Ochiai (JP) at the Ars Electronica Festival 2021.

In order to mediate between the massive landscapes composed by original nature and the massless landscapes described by digital nature, Yoichi Ochiai continues to create artwork for transforming scenery. Between mass and masslessness, he is searching for a longing for mass and a sentiment for pixels. This work was originally created with the aim of transforming the horizons seen from the city. Light and images are added to the line that forms the boundary between sky and earth. Using a computational machine and a display device, the work depicts the “transformation of materialized nature” on the borderline of ideas visible from the observatory location. Carrying the concept further, a digital installation is created in various spaces by deploying mass-less images at the scale of the body as interactions with a large-scale transparent display to mediate various landscapes.

This installation employs the context of space as a borrowed landscape, and by displaying digital images without mass, it highlights the materializing potential of space and continues to mediate between the image and the material world. With this installation, the artist explores the possibilities of images floating in space, expressing our innate craving for physicality and the division between the physical and the digital.

Credit: tom mesic
Transformation of Scenery / Yoichi Ochiai (JP)
Photo showing the Project "Transformation of Scenery" by Yoichi Ochiai (JP) at the Ars Electronica Festival 2021.

In order to mediate between the massive landscapes composed by original nature and the massless landscapes described by digital nature, Yoichi Ochiai continues to create artwork for transforming scenery. Between mass and masslessness, he is searching for a longing for mass and a sentiment for pixels. This work was originally created with the aim of transforming the horizons seen from the city. Light and images are added to the line that forms the boundary between sky and earth. Using a computational machine and a display device, the work depicts the “transformation of materialized nature” on the borderline of ideas visible from the observatory location. Carrying the concept further, a digital installation is created in various spaces by deploying mass-less images at the scale of the body as interactions with a large-scale transparent display to mediate various landscapes.

This installation employs the context of space as a borrowed landscape, and by displaying digital images without mass, it highlights the materializing potential of space and continues to mediate between the image and the material world. With this installation, the artist explores the possibilities of images floating in space, expressing our innate craving for physicality and the division between the physical and the digital.

Credit: tom mesic