Author: anaarg

Jenny Sabin Studio, Ada, 2018-2019. 

Ada is a project by Jenny Sabin’s studio for the Microsoft Research Artist in Residence program. The project was named after Ada Lovelace, one of the first computer programmers and a woman as well. This project uses AI and architecture to create an interactive pavilion using responsive photo-luminescence. The project uses 3d printed nodes to connect fiberglass rods, with a knitted main structure that contains the responsive aspects of the pavilion.  

This project was fascinating to me in its manipulation of what architecture tends to be– static. The pavilion constantly changes in response to the clients it is made for–humans. Thus, the pavilion explores the bounds on which architecture can morph in real time as a response to human stimulus and movements. By integrating the light responsive aspect, the pavilion has yet another transformative variable that generates constant new experiences of Ada. The exploration Jenny Sabin does in this project introduces the possibilities of architecture that become fluid and almost free form to an extent using real time data sets that respond to the environment. It is inspiring in the ways Jenny Sabin uses Ada and artificial intelligence to connect humans to material forms and thus forming an intimate conversation between the pavilion and us where we are able to communicate through interpreted data.

Laurie Spiegel, Unseen Worlds, 1991. 

Laurie Spiegel is one of the pioneers of electronic-music and even had one of her compositions sent into space on the Voyager spacecraft for aliens if they were to come in contact with it. Spiegel also created her own algorithmic compositions called Music Mouse. Her album, Unseen Worlds, uses computation electronic music to experiment and convey unfamiliar yet comfortingly ambient music. Even the album cover art seems to resemble this blend of computational generation and abstracted geometries that evoke the mystery and unfamiliarity of the music itself. 

Her program Music Mouse was created on a Macintosh 512k that generated tones based on the movement of the mouse. Spiegel’s album is inspiring in its pursuit to use electronic music and artificial sounds to create foreign ambiances that still sounds futuristic and distant even while being made 30 years ago. Spiegel created other-wordly compositions in the album with her software Music Mouse that allowed an accessible way to compose electronic music faster. Perhaps most importantly, Spiegel’s early explorations of synths and electronic music was inspiring for women and people who wanted to do music without the harsh borders of classic training. In an interview Spiegel says, “electronic instruments were a great democratizing force.” It becomes clear how her albums and work with electronic music expressed the transition of a more accessible music form that invites the unexpected and unusual.

Ying Gao, Flowing Water, Standing Time, 2019. Original LO-03 by Isabel Xu. 

I found this work fascinating because of my peer Isabel Xu’s description of how the artist Ying Gao blends robotics and fabric to create ever changing clothing. Ying Gao uses color and light sensors to make clothes that respond to the chromatic spectrum using a raspberry PI and small cameras. 

What stood out to me was that Gao described the clothing line to display “perpetual metamorphosis”. Comparing the changing qualities of technology as it is used, for example a running code, clothing is quite static and existent as a sculptural piece that can be worn. By blending the two as Gao has done, you get clothing that is constantly in a state of changing. More humorously, this clothing line reminded me of a solution to our indecisive nature when deciding what to wear for the day as our clothes appear the same throughout the day. This provides a solution for those indecisive moments where the clothing is transforming and responding to its chromatic surroundings. 

This clothing line demonstrates how robotics can turn something definite in form to something responsive to the environment. Much of life is constantly changing and so the integration of AI and machine learning allows for previously static objects to evolve like a life form in response to worldly stimuli. 

Refik Anadol, Space in the Mind of a Machine, 2019. 

Refik Anadol is a media artist from Istanbul, Turkey who works on site-specific public art, parametric computer design, and interactive audio performances in his installations. Anadol currently has a Masters of Fine Arts from both California and Istanbul. Anadol works on creating installations that encompass aspects of architecture, media arts, and machine learning to create uniquely interactive art pieces that respond to a multitude of combinations of machine learning and traditional media.  

Anadol’s dedication to creating site-specific art is inspiring because it uses public spaces as his canvas and muse for his designs. He mentions in the talk how a public space often has no formal entrance, beginning, or end, but rather exists with the environment around it. Taking that idea and then using interactive computation design for his installations allows for his work to not simply be on display, but become a part of the space in which it exists and interacts with the people passing by. 

Specifically, his piece Melting Memories, a data sculpture, fascinated me in how it visualizes one of our most private data, our memories. Anadol found common patterns in the results of our brain activity and used this data set for the programming of the sculpture by using noise functions. This project was super interesting in how it adapts frontal lobe activity in the brain into a painting that creates a variety of moves and patterns through noise. Using computational design, Anadol is able to reflect our thoughts in a language that is not verbal, and thus makes intimate moments in a public abstracted performance. 

Anadol presents his work by defining his explorations and goals for spatial thinking and translation before discussing each project. By understanding his intentions for a project, it becomes clear to us how he uses his media background to execute those ideas.

Fernanda Viegas, Wind Map, 2012. 

This project creates a real-time, or a “living portrait”, wind map of the United States during the winter months and uses the data to visualize an art piece in the process. The project uses motion of white lines over a black map of the U.S. to show the wind motions and heaviness by layering the white wind lines. 

Viegas notes that while it was an artistic endeavor originally, the map provides a variety of functions where people have used it for bird migration patterns, bicyclists, etc. Viegas uses data for this project from the National Digital Forecast Database and combines it with computational circulations that project the data in an abstracted, artistic way. The Wind Map uses “comet-like trails” to show the motion of the wind lines. The map is made entirely in HTML and JavaScript. 

This project is successful in its multi-purpose presentation of wind data in the U.S. and its additional artistic purpose. Computationally creating the Wind Map creates a direct way to have updates to the data sets as the wind directions, intensity, etc. changes from day to day. This conveys accurate data for the day but also creates an art piece that is mesmerizing because of its constant movement. The Wind Map additionally impressively communicates the forecast data in a simplistic and easy to understand map consisting of two main elements; the base map and the wind lines.