Archivi categoria: Ars elctronica

Ars elctronica, robotica

Alter Itsuki Doi (JP), Takashi Ikegami (JP), Hiroshi Ishiguro (JP), Kohei Ogawa (JP)-Award of Distinction Ars Electronica 2018
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Alter is a robot developed for the purpose of exploring what it means to be “life-like.” In contrast with the Otonaroid, Alter appears to be a machine that has been stripped bare. However, it expresses life-likeness through complex movements. These movements may look haphazard, but change constantly due to the underlying algorithm that mimics the logic of neural circuits of living things. A moment of “life-likeness” emerges as you observe closely—what is that moment like? Attempt to find your own answer to that question.

 

Alter does not move in ways that are determined beforehand; rather, the movements made by the entire body are created in real-time. Furthermore, your responses are perceived by sensors and reflected into the movements. Sensors that measure the distance between Alter and human beings observe the movements of the people around Alter, and send signals to the program. A central pattern generator (CPG) creates a basic rhythm that is cyclical, yet gradually deviates from the original pattern. A neural network of 1,000 nerve cells is recreated on the computer, and Alter “learns” life-like activities based on signals sent from the sensors. Based on computer signals that are rhythmic and changing, compressed air is sent through 42 joints to create smooth movements.

Alter was born through cooperation between a researcher of androids, which are robots that appear identical to human beings, and a researcher of artificial life, who attempts to recreate life on a computer. Both researchers ask the same question: “What is life?”—but the hypotheses on that are different.

Biografie:

Takashi Ikegami (JP)Takashi Ikegami (JP) is a professor at the University of Tokyo. He specializes in artificial life and complexity, and has been known to engage on the border between art and science.

Hiroshi Ishiguro (JP)Hiroshi Ishiguro (JP) received a D.Eng. in systems engineering from Osaka University, Japan in 1991. He is currently Professor at the Department of Systems Innovation in the Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, and Distinguished Professor of Osaka University. He is also visiting director (group leader: 2002-2013) of Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute and an ATR fellow. His research interests include distributed sensor systems, interactive robotics, and android science.

Kohei Ogawa (JP)Kohei Ogawa (JP) is a robotics and Al researcher at Osaka University, where he has been an Associate Professor since 2017. He is working on a robotics and interaction study.

Itsuki Doi (JP)Itsuki Doi (JP) is a sound artist and a PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Art and Science, where he also received his Master Degree of Science in 2015.

Credits:
Supported by Osaka University and Tokyo University

Ars elctronica, augmented reality, digital art

[help me know the truth] Mary Flanagan (US)-a software-driven participatory artwork for Ars electronica
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[help me know the truth] is a software-driven participatory artwork in which visitors first snap a digital self-portrait (or “selfie”) at the gallery. The image is then sent around the gallery’s network and appears on digital stations located around the gallery. Using the tools of cognitive neuroscience, the faces are manipulated with noise patterns to literally, through time and user input, ‘construct’ the perfect stereotype.

On digital stations in the gallery, visitors are asked to choose between two slightly altered portraits to match the text label shown. By selecting slight variations of the images over time, differing facial features emerge from what are otherwise random patterns that reveal unconscious beliefs about facial features or tendencies related to culture and identity.

http://maryflanagan.com/work/help-me-know-the-truth/

 

[help me know the truth] utilizes Reverse Correlation to investigate how psychological responses to people’s faces might uncover both positive and negative reactions to those who visit the gallery. The viewer/participant chooses between two identical selfies, where different computational noise has been applied. The faces appear somewhat blurry, so the viewer/participant chooses one blurry image over another that might match criteria given. The list of prompts for visitors to the gallery ranges from the politically-charged to the taboo: ”Choose the victim;“ falls after “Indicate the leader“ but might lead to the timely, “Select the terrorist.” Other judgements passed by visitors include identifying which face is the most angelic, kind, criminal, etc. Through choosing faces manipulated by particular noise patterns, facial features emerge that reveal larger thoughts and beliefs about how we fundamentally see each other.

 

Why do people—even internationally—tend to gravitate towards similar stereotypes? Bias against ’the other‘ is a dangerous impediment to a just Twenty-First Century society, in part encouraged by our own neurological structures that have not caught up with our lived realities. Hyper-scale image-based categorization is being deployed in government and surveillance programs worldwide. These processes demand our critical attention. Where do we find the “truth“ about each other this way?

[help me know the truth] raises awareness about the unconscious stereotypes we all carry in our minds, and how these beliefs become embedded in myriad software systems including computer vision programs. My intent is to both utilize and question how computational techniques can uncover the categorizing systems of the mind, and how software itself is therefore subject to socially constructed fears and values. [help me know the truth] provokes discussion about the types of biases that surround us: that we are under global technological surveillance is troubling; that the humans involved in crafting these systems, the systems themselves, and the people brought in to make final calls on various warnings, alerts, and arrests are all products of unconscious biases, is troubling. Perhaps software systems do not help us know the truth at all.

Biografie:

Mary Flanagan (US)Mary Flanagan (US) plays with the anxious and profound relationship between technological systems and human experience. Her artwork ranges from game-based installations to computer viruses, embodied interfaces to interactive texts. In her experimental interactive writing, she’s interested in how chance operations bring new texts into being. Flanagan’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Guggenheim, Tate Britain, Postmasters, Steirischer Herbst, Ars Electronica, Artist’s Space, LABoral, the Telfair Museum, ZKM Medienmuseum, and museums in New Zealand, South Korea, and Australia. She was awarded an honoris causa in design in 2016, was a fellow in 2017 at the Getty Museum, and in 2018 she was a cultural leader at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Credits:
Thanks to Jared Segal, Kristin Walker, Danielle Taylor; open source RC software by Dr. Ron Dotsch.
Supported by: The Leslie Center for the Humanities, Dartmouth College

Ars elctronica

Turnstile Ursula Damm (DE)
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Turnstile

Ursula Damm (DE)

Interactive Art+

HONORARY MENTION ARS ELECTRONICA

 

Installation

Turnstile is a digital artwork in public space that investigates swarm behavior as an expression of collective daily life.

In a version specially adapted for the CyberArts show, passers-by on OK Square are filmed and their images transmitted to customized generative software. The software follows a particular grammar to translate the interplay of local events, pedestrian activity, and social interaction into virtual geometric architecture. These readings of the real-time video stream generate new geometries for the setting, suggesting new axes and spatial divisions.

The original Turnstile is a permanent installation that was set up in 2016 in the Schadowstraße subway station in Düsseldorf, Germany.

PROGRAM

  1. Select a location (origin).
  2. Determine the movement axes of people and tra­ffic.
  3. Look to see if these axes are at angles to one another, which when mirrored and rotated can form a polygon, the sides of which all extend outward equally.
  4. Draw this polygon to approximate the natural geometry of the location.
  5. Look to see if, starting from this, the intrinsic geometries of the location can form a surface structure (tessellation) that periodically repeats the original geometries.
  6. Determine whether and how, in the aerial image of the location, the areas fit together in the revealed geometry of the place.
  7. Enhance existing structures by developing their geometries.
  8. Connect existing structures into the logic of the original geometry.
  9. See if, based on these geometries, which are local to the site, a surface structure (tiling) is possible which rhythmically repeats the original geometries.
  10. Investigate if and how existing areas in the aerial view of the place fit into the found geometry of the place.

Website:

Ars elctronica

ELECTRONICOS FANTASTICOS!  by EI WADA
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ELECTRONICOS FANTASTICOS! is a project where retired consumer electronics are resuscitated as instruments, new ways to play music are invented, and all kinds of people are invited to be orchestrated with the artist and musician Ei Wada.

Once we dismantle old consumer electronics, we realize the condensed wisdom of pioneers and the interesting and mysterious scientific/physics phenomenon hidden inside these objects. By transferring these into electronic musical instruments, a sound like a groan of electronics begins to echo. Old consumer electronics come to life as yokai—supernatural creatures from Japanese folklore, sometimes they appear as spirits of abandoned tools.

Currently, we have 3 main bases of creation: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hitachi. More than 70 members have joined the project from diverse fields such as engineers, designers, musicians, and management members. In November 2017, under the most symbolic old radio tower Tokyo Tower, we staged the Electro-Magnetic Bon-Dance. The original purpose of the Bon Dance is to mourn the dead; here we extended its concept for the memorial service of electronics that have played a major role in economic growth. Elderlies who donated electronics came to see the concert; children fell in love with instruments, engineers who work at electric appliance companies were thrilled to create instruments.

Everybody is enjoying the project and is very surprised how daily items have been fantastically transformed. We dream and search for the answer to our question, what is the new folklore music of urban cities? We want to realize a festival that strongly contrasts with the efficiency and rationality of the AI era, to breathe life into trash that holds memories of someone, and to produce new instruments through ideas, fantasies and technology with many people. As a next step we wish to develop a new relationship between objects and the human spirit. We believe that this project has the potential to establish a new culture after the fetish for capitalism.

Biografie:

Ei Wada (JP)Ei Wada, born in 1987, is an artist / a musician. When he was a child, Wada was convinced that there was a music festival waiting for him under the gigantic tower shaped like the crab legs embedded in tube TV. But when his friend told him that there was no such place on earth, the dream bubble burst. Then Wada decided to make the music festival himself.

Nicos Orchest-Lab (JP)Nicos Orchest-Lab (JP). A project team was formed for ELECTRONICOS FANTASTICOS! (nickname: Nicos), which started in 2015. New members coming from diverse fields have since joined the project and they improvise and exchange fantasies, knowledge, and techniques on a regular basis.

Credits:
Promoter: Sony Music Artists, Topping East, nonprofit organization
Producer: Ryouichi Kiyomiya, Topping East, nonprofit organization

Ars elctronica

AI DJ Project —  A dialog between human and AI through music Shoya Dozono (JP), Nao Tokui (JP)
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http://prix2018.aec.at/prixwinner/28047/

 

AI DJ Project is a live performance featuring an Artificial Intelligence (AI) DJ playing alongside a human DJ. Utilizing various deep neural networks, the software (AI DJ) selects vinyl records and mixes songs. Playing alternately, each DJ selects one song at a time, embodying a dialogue between the human and AI through music. DJ-ing “Back to Back” serves as a critical investigation into the unique relationship between humans and machines.

The system of AI DJ consists of the following three features:

  1. Music selection We trained three different neural networks for inferring genres, musical instruments and drum machines used in the track from spectrogram images. AI DJ “listens” to what human DJ plays and extracts auditory features using those networks. The extracted features are compared with those of all tracks in our pre-selected record box, so that the system can select the closest one, which presumably has similar musical tone/mood.
  2. Beatmatching It is also a task for AI DJ to control the pitch (speed) of the turntable to match the beat. We used “reinforcement learning” (RL) to teach the model how to speed up/down, nudge/pull the turntable to align downbeats through trials and errors. For this purpose, we built an OSC-compatible custom turntable and robot fingers to manipulate.
  3. Crowd-reading A good DJ should pay attention to the energy of the audience. We utilize a deep learning-based motion tracking technique to quantify how much people in the audience dance to the music AI plays for future music selection.

We have performed several times in different locations in Japan and Europe. AI’s slight unpredictability always brought amusing tension into the performance and gave new ideas to human DJs on what/how to play music as a DJ. AI is not a replacement for the human DJ. Instead, it is a partner that can think and play alongside its human counterpart, bringing forth a wider perspective of our relationship to contemporary technologies.

Biografie:

Shoya Dozono (JP)Shoya Dozono (JP), born in 1988. Designer/Programmer. After graduating from the Faculty of Design, Tokyo Zokei University, Dozono completed his Master’s degree at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences(IAMAS). He joined Qosmo in September 2016. Since 2013, Dozono has worked as a visual programmer for Hiroaki Umeda’s dance and audio-visual projects.

Nao Tokui (JP)Nao Tokui (JP), born in 1976, serves as the CEO of Qosmo Inc. He is also a media artist and a DJ. Tokui received his PhD from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems (EEIS), Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. After pursuing his research and creative interest as a visiting research fellow at Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Paris, Tokui founded Qosmo in 2009. His recent works include the production of a music video of a song by Brian Eno, using AI.

Credits:
Concept/Machine Learning: Nao Tokui
Visualization: Shoya Dozono
Project management: Miyu Hosoi (Qosmo)
Assistance: Yuma Kajihara (Qosmo), Robin Jungers (Qosmo)
Robot: TASKO, inc.
Customized turntable for AI: Mitsuhito Ando (YCAM)
Production support: YCAM InterLab

 

Ars elctronica

Cooperative Aesthetics ar Ars electronica 2018
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“Cooperative Aesthetics is an exhibition by Gerhard Funk (AT) of a collection of programs designed to enable audiences to enjoy collective audiovisual experiences. The intention is to transform Deep Space into a setting in which visitors can move about freely and thereby influence the visual output of the wall and floor projections and the sounds audible in the space. Visitors are meant to playfully explore the phenomena triggered and controlled by their movements.

Ars elctronica, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, digital art

False Positives / Esther Hovers (NL)
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Beautiful project by ESTHER HOVERS seen at ARS electronica 2018

The project False Positives is about intelligent surveillance systems. These are cameras that are able to detect deviant behavior within public space. False Positives revolves around the question of normal behavior. It aims to raise this question by basing the project on eight different ‘anomalies’. These so-called anomalies are signs of body-language and movement that could indicate criminal intent. It is through these anomalies the algorithms are built and cameras are able to detect deviant behavior. The eight different anomalies were pointed out to me by several intelligent surveillance experts with whom I collaborated for this project. The work consists of several approaches, photographs and pattern drawings. All together, these form an analysis of different settings in and around the business district of the de facto European capital: Brussels.

Prolonged pausing, groups of people suddenly splitting up, a woman coming to stop exactly at the corner of the street, a man running through a slow-moving crowd. All of these can be classified as deviant behavior within the context of public space. To find out what constitutes deviance we first need to ask ourselves the question: What is considered normal?
Public security is a growing concern throughout Europe. To the eye of the camera every person is a possible suspect, every person a possible perpetrator.
Will intelligent surveillance help us to safeguard our need for security?

This video is mimicking the interface of an intelligent surveillance system. It was made in the business district of Brussels in 2015.

© 2015 Esther Hovers

 

Ars elctronica

Ars Electronica Opening, September 6, 2018, at 8 PM
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Den ersten Tag des Ars Electronica Festival 2018 “Error – the Art of Imperfection” rundet das Festival-Opening in der POSTCITY mit jeder Menge an Musik, Performances und Visuals ab. Start am 6.9.2018, 20:00

The first day of the 2018 Ars Electronica Festival “Error – the Art of Imperfection” culminates in POSTCITY with the Festival Opening and a jam-packed lineup of music, performances and visuals. The show kicks off on September 6, 2018, at 8 PM

Ars elctronica

EXHIBITION at ARS ELECTRONICA, LINZ
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As Museum of the Future and School of the Future, the Ars Electronica Center is dedicated to the fusion of art, science and technology. Biotechnology and genetic engineering, neurosciences, robotics, prosthetics and media art form interactive experimental arrangements that convey an idea of what our world and our daily life could soon be like. All our exhibitions and presentations are geared to this question, open up different perspectives on our nature and our self-image and make their possible future manifestations tangible to a wide audience.

New Views of Humankind

NEW VIEWS OF HUMANKIND

VRLab

VRLAB

Radical Atoms

RADICAL ATOMS

Kid's Research Laboratory

KID’S RESEARCH LABORATORY

Deep Space 8K

DEEP SPACE 8K

Spaceship Earth

SPACESHIP EARTH

Out of Control

OUT OF CONTROL

GeoPulse

GEOPULSE

TIME OUT

TIME OUT

Prix Workshop

PRIX WORKSHOP

Artists, Creators, Engineers
Ars elctronica

Ars electronica Festival- Error The art of imperfection, Linz (September 6-10)
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At what point does an error become a mistake, a fail, and what makes it the celebrated source of unprecedented ideas and inventions? When is an error an oversight and when is it intentional deception, a fake?

An error is a discrepancy from what we expect, a deviation from the norm … but what is the norm and who establishes it? An error doesn’t have to be a mistake; it can be an opportunity!

But how much tolerance can we summon up for such deviations, and is it enough for the leeway and latitude that are necessary to unleash their inherent productive power which can be harnessed for social and economic innovation? Or will we allow ourselves to be misled by the populist rhetoric of fear and social scoring? Observing the current situation, one very quickly gets the impression that something has gone terribly wrong with the Digital Revolution and the 21st century. Millions of people feel that they have been defrauded of their sovereignty over their data and their privacy. Deception and fakery have become realities of everyday life, and influence public sentiment and the public opinion formation process. And hovering above it all is a diffuse anxiety of being left behind by the swift dynamics of development. Was the dream of a beautiful digital world an error, and how can we rescue this dream?

This day and age is characterized by a compulsion to achieve perfection and a seemingly unwavering faith in technology. And amidst this drive to optimize, to increase efficiency and raise productivity, and, in even more instances, merely to enjoy the possibilities that digital technologies and social media place at our fingertips, we put ourselves at the mercy of machinery that does its utmost to make lemmings of digital consumption out of us.

Big Data surveillance takes preventative action upon detecting any deviation from our habitual ways. And it is said that in the future, social scoring will do an even better job of optimizing our behavior and attuning it to social norms and standards. The more the technologies deployed for this purpose are perfected and made more efficient, the tighter our situation becomes. Whoever doesn’t fit in sticks out and gets cut.

But it is precisely this imperfection that offers the greatest potential for new solutions. Our objective should not be optimization, since this is merely a best-possible approach and adaptation to what we can now think and deem correct. Optimization leaves no leeway for the unanticipated, and thus no latitude to recognize and rectify what actually are undesirable developments or to come up with better ideas with which to set forth on alternate courses.

Effectively dealing with errors, risk tolerance and creativity are perhaps the skills that are most important for our future.

How many errors in the genetic sequences of living creatures did evolution have to make until LUCA (last universal common ancestor) became Homo sapiens 3.5 million years ago? And how many errors did Homo sapiens need to learn from in order to achieve our current state of development? And how much poorer in terms of experiences and insights would humankind now be if there had always only been “normal” people and the statistical mean … no other kinds, deviant thinkers, people of different colors, or those with alternative beliefs?

To err is human, it’s said. Could that be why we’re incessantly striving for perfection and steadfastly believe we can attain it with technology and science, and in spite of the fact that there is nothing that we fear more than being eliminated by a world of machinery that functions perfectly well without us?

How can we rethink our very ambivalent relationship to technology as the driving force for configuring our future, and what errors should we perhaps not repeat in the process?

The call for social intelligence is now being juxtaposed to our enthusiasm for the digital world and artificial intelligence. We are propagating the courage to welcome imperfection, since isn’t that quite possibly what will always set us apart from the machines!

Gerfried StockerGerfried Stocker (AT) is a media artist and an electronic engineer. Since 1995 he has been a managing and an artistic director of Ars Electronica. 1995/1996 he developed the groundbreaking exhibition strategies of Ars Electronica Center with a small team of artists and technicians and was responsible for the set-up and establishment of Ars Electronica’s own R&D facility, Ars Electronica Futurelab. Since 2004 he has been in charge of developing Ars Electronica’s program of international exhibition tours. From 2005 on he planned the expansion of Ars Electronica Center and implemented the total substantive makeover of its exhibits. Stocker is a guest speaker at many international conferences and a Visiting Professor at Osaka University of Arts as well as guest lecturer at Deusto University Bilbao. He is also a consultant for many international companies on creativity and innovation management.

Christine SchöpfSince 1979, Christine Schöpf (AT) has been a driving force behind Ars Electronica’s development. Between 1987 and 2003, she played a key role in conceiving and organizing the Prix Ars Electronica. Since 1996, she and Gerfried Stocker have shared responsibility for the artistic direction of the Ars Electronica Festival. Christine Schöpf studied German & Romance languages and literature and then worked as a radio and TV journalist. From 1981 to 2008, she was in charge of cultural and scientific reporting at the ORF – Austrian Broadcasting Company’s Upper Austria Regional Studio. In 2009, Linz Art University bestowed the title of honorary professor on Christine Schöpf.

Ars elctronica, Festival

Deep Space LIVE: Kepler’s Life and Work in Linz-Ars Electronica Festival
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Ars Electronica Center
Deep Space LIVE: Kepler’s Life and Work in Linz
Thursday, June 21, 2018 / 7-8 PM

(Linz, June 18, 2018) Johannes Kepler’s life centered on Linz from 1612 to 1627. On Thursday evening, June 21st, astrophotographer and amateur astronomer Erich Meyer will offer fascinating insights into Kepler’s Linz years—his enormous productivity in the field of astronomy, Kepler’s happy second marriage, his mother’s trial on witchcraft charges and his constant money worries. This presentation will also feature Engelbert Leitner’s readings of Kepler’s touching letters.

Erich Meyer
A long-standing member of the Linz Astronomical Society, Erich Meyer is an enthusiastic amateur astronomer and astrophotographer. He and his colleagues have operated a private observatory in Davidschlag since 1979. Meyer has discovered numerous asteroids; his astronomical activities have also enabled him to authoritatively identify Kepler’s Linz address, Hofgasse 7, and thus end 400 years of speculation!

Deep Space LIVE
The Ars Electronica Center hosts a Deep Space LIVE event every Thursday (except holidays) at 7 PM. Each presentation features ultra-high-definition imagery in 16×9-meter format and is accompanied by expert commentary, entertaining stand-up repartee, or musical improvisation. Whether great works from the history of art, space travel, journeys of discovery in the nano-world or a live concert is what you’ve come to behold, Deep Space LIVE stands for enlightening entertainment amidst breathtaking worlds of imagery. Holders of a valid Museum ticket are admitted free of charge.

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Keplers Leben und Wirken in Linz / Fotocredit: Ars Electronica – Robert Bauernhansl / Printversion / Album