Picture of the future
A collision of art, music and technology explores the relationship between humans and the universe, Cheng Yuezhu reports in Nanjing.
In the 1997 sci-fi film Contact, the protagonist Ellie Arroway takes a glimpse of the universe, revealing the paradoxical insignificance and rarity of human existence.
Several days ago, radio waves from the cosmos were detected in Canada — much like in the movie — indicating the possibility that human beings may not be alone in the vast universe.
Echoing the theme of extraterrestrial contact, the Cosmic AI exhibition, presented by the creative arts hub TRU-M, opened in the Jiangbei New Area of Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Saturday. It offers visitors the chance to establish a connection with the cosmos.
The show is the Asia premiere of Ouchhh, a Turkish multidisciplinary new media studio specializing in artificial intelligence, data-driven artworks and public art. The studio has won a number of awards, including the Red Dot Award. Its previous exhibition, Poetic AI, in Paris attracted 65,000 visitors in the first 10 days and 1 million visitors in nine months.
In the present exhibition, Ouchhh has debuted its first-ever permanent artwork in Nanjing, DataGate AI
Public Art Sculpture — a 12-meterhigh data-driven AI installation that invites people from around the world to upload photos, messages to space and contact information to its official webpage.
The data will be collected via delicately designed algorithms to create a “collective consciousness” of human beings, the messages of which will not only be visualized on the installation’s screens — creating a futuristic atmosphere in Nanjing’s innovative Jiangbei New Area — but also will be converted into signals and sent into outer space.
According to Ferdi Alici, founder and director of Ouchhh, the work is an effort to build a bridge between Earth and outer space. It’s created under the guidance of Dawn Gelino, deputy director of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute.
Visitor Zhu Yu, a 25-year-old art fan, says: “I love the combination of art and technology. I have been to quite a few new media exhibitions in China but have never seen anything as high-end as this. You can actually send your photo and message into space. How amazing is that!”
Having established contact with the universe through DataGate, the visitors will step into the exhibition hall, arriving at the first of the exhibition’s four parts, which is entitled
Stardust. Built on the concept of “we are all made of stardust”, this part allows a philosophical and poetic exploration of the relationship between humans and the universe.
At first sight, the exhibition hall seems to be enveloped in a tranquil and dark void. But when the visitors walk in and wander about, they will see shoals of bright spots appear on the screens around them, arising, drifting and dissipating into the heavens.
“Our inspiration for this concept comes from the American astrono- mer Carl Sagan’s quote, ‘We are made of star-stuff’,” Ouchhh’s creative director Eylul Alici says. “When we step into the exhibition area, the sensors will detect our shapes, and transform us into stardust and make us a part of the universe.”
While the concepts behind the pieces vary, all the artworks feature powerful visuals and technology.
The opening night included a live performance, specifically, a concert with the listening experience enhanced by real-time visualizations of the electrical activity in the musicians’ brains.
For each music piece, one of the musicians wore a small device on their head that detected the changes in their brain waves and then projected the waves onto the screen, allowing the audience to “see” each musician’s thoughts and feelings.
Ferdi Alici says brain waves speak volumes about a person’s emotions, focus and attention, as well as some auditory and neural mechanisms. By collecting different types of brain waves, the studio is able to transform data into a real-time concert experience.
The three musicians are pianist Ma Chen, pipa (lute) player Wang Yayu and guqin (Chinese zither) player Chen Zhijun. The repertoire consisted of five pieces, which varied in styles and eras, therefore generating diverse visuals.
The brain waves were sometimes illustrated as parallel lines. When the musicians started to perform, little dots would emerge and fly across the screen, causing the lines to flutter like peaks and troughs, resembling British rock band Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album cover.
The solo pipa performance seemed particularly awe-inspiring to the audience. A myriad of white dots flowed across the dark screen, looking like negatives of Chinese ink-wash paintings. Occasionally, at a sudden explosion of notes, the dots multiplied and bloomed like fireworks, setting the entire hall alight. When the piece ended, the dots ceased dancing and dripped down the screen, leaving the audience with a sense of serenity.
The pianist says it was intriguing to see his thoughts presented by the artists. “Sometimes, uncertainty results in new inspirations. I liked how the artists portrayed my thoughts, even though they might have seemed different from my own vision.”
Ouchhh artists are also exploring the future of art. “We are always trying to make a connection between every medium ... and linking them for one art piece,” Ferdi Alici says.