Videos

The digital art and design studio, onformative, was commissioned by IBM to create a permanent installation for the new IBM Watson IoT Headquarters in Munich last year. The result was a data-driven art installation visualizing the different facets of the Internet of Things and cognitive technologies called “ibm flux”.

video of ibm flux

From ribbons of light to responsive gradients, the visual content is data-driven and interactive based on real-time time input of various sensor inputs and weather forecasting and culminates in an upward motion with a pulse and positive momentum. The shape was inspired by the IBM Watson and realized by using thirty-two curved screens span over eight ribbon displays.

“flux” activates the space and demonstrates the significance of cognitive technologies and A.I. in our present world and future – reflecting the ideation, innovation, growth and creative power of technology.

John Cage was an American music composer that paved the way for randomness in music. Many of his musical compositions explored theories of chance through methods such as implementing deliberate randomness processes in their productions. He wanted to challenge the nature of what sounds we expect to hear by expanding his compositions to comprise of unforeseen/unintended elements of sound.

In the score of his “Fontana Mix,” we will find 10 pages of paper and 12 transparencies of graphic notation of music with text made up of various languages and individual letters, 12 different lines of different colors, and 16 black squares representing different vocal sounds of different singing styles. Cage uses wavy/curvy lines with varying texture and thickness to indicate the different sounds within the mix. I admire John Cage’s work because he created a chance system to render unfixed compositional techniques (like an algorithm for indeterminacy) to utilize chance into his musical compositions.

“Fontana Mix” by John Cage (1958)

Parag K. Mital is an audiovisual computational artist and researcher. He creates his artwork through the building of artificial intelligence algorithms. I am captivated by the way Mital has explored deep learning, machine learning, film, eye-tracking, EEG, and fMRI recordings to generate his artistic productions.  In his work “In the Style of Klee,” he utilizes these generative model processes and constructs an audiovisual perception of what looks like a video from the view from a car window as the car is driving through the streets. In this piece of work, it can be seen that it is inspired by the art style of Paul Klee. I admire how the Mital is able to bring what looks like a painting with Paul Klee’s style to life. He demonstrates the complexity yet simplicity of traditional fine art styles and brings it together with modern experimental generative art, giving his audience a unique film experience through traditional art and generative augmented computational science.

“In the Style of Klee” by Parag K. Mital, 2015