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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
On the Expressive Potential of the Computer Controlled Human Face
Remko Scha,
Huge Harry,
Arthur Elsenaar
Algorithmic art production is aesthetically superior to the traditional methods which rely on the creative imagination of human persons. It is not constrained by the conventional ideas of human artists, or tainted by their often embarrassing ulterior motives. The Institute of Artificial Art is therefore committed to the development of fully automatic algorithmic art in all artistic genres.
In music and visual art, the success of the algorithmic approach is well established now; we have developed several algorithms which create rewarding works of art without requiring human interference. Applying the algorithmic approach to the production of computer-controlled dance and theatre performances is, however, still a major challenge: it requires a close collaboration between machines and human persons, in which the human participants cannot seize control of the situation to use it for their own expressive purposes. We intend to solve this problem by developing technological methods for controlling the movements of the muscles of human dancers and actors in complete detail.
Pilot experiments have shown that the body part which constitutes the most important human display device is the human face. Initially we have therefore focused our research completely on the computational control of the human facial muscles.
In music and visual art, the success of the algorithmic approach is well established now; we have developed several algorithms which create rewarding works of art without requiring human interference. Applying the algorithmic approach to the production of computer-controlled dance and theatre performances is, however, still a major challenge: it requires a close collaboration between machines and human persons, in which the human participants cannot seize control of the situation to use it for their own expressive purposes. We intend to solve this problem by developing technological methods for controlling the movements of the muscles of human dancers and actors in complete detail.
Pilot experiments have shown that the body part which constitutes the most important human display device is the human face. Initially we have therefore focused our research completely on the computational control of the human facial muscles.
Huge Harry (01) is a commercially available voice synthesis machine, designed at the MIT Speech Laboratory. Currently, he works as a researcher and a spokes-machine at the Institute o f Artificial Art in Amsterdam. He has also performed as a singer. Recently, Huge Harry has also started to work as a political activist, trying to achieve equal rights for Computers.
Arthur Elsenaar [NL] spent most of his youth building ultra-high frequency radio and television transmitters that were used illegally by several hundred pirate stations throughout the Netherlands. In the early nineties he studied Cultural Engineering at the Fine Art Academy Minerva in Groningen.
Remko Scha (NL) was trained as a physicist and has worked on Natural Language Processing at Philips Research Labs (Eindhoven, the Netherlands) and BBN Labs (Cambridge, Mass., USA). Currently, he is head of the Computational Linguistics Department at the University of Amsterdam.
Arthur Elsenaar [NL] spent most of his youth building ultra-high frequency radio and television transmitters that were used illegally by several hundred pirate stations throughout the Netherlands. In the early nineties he studied Cultural Engineering at the Fine Art Academy Minerva in Groningen.
Remko Scha (NL) was trained as a physicist and has worked on Natural Language Processing at Philips Research Labs (Eindhoven, the Netherlands) and BBN Labs (Cambridge, Mass., USA). Currently, he is head of the Computational Linguistics Department at the University of Amsterdam.