Art has always been concerned with decoding/re-encoding human history. These artists are using digital tools to explore what remains after humans have left a place. What do these speculative ruins and artifacts tell us about who people are?
Organized by Chris Coleman for the Digerati Emergent Media Festival on September 16th 2023, the artworks were mostly drawn from the NFT collection of Laleh Mehran and Chris Coleman on the Tezos blockchain.
The program was broken into two screens: LEFT and RIGHT
LEFT SCREEN
Aluan Wang
Paths to the Future, 2021.
Different political entities gave different shapes to Taiwan. Under such a pluralistic perspective, therefore, Taiwan, along with the shape of its border, varies over the course of time, as if it is an organically metamorphosing island, struggling in a tight corner of international politics. Facing the fact having different interpretations, the artist attempts to address it with the algorithm , thereby altering the composition of Taiwan’s topography and rendering it as illusory as real in each viewing.
Frederik Vanhoutte
Force projection (Compound 230205), 2023.
Structures of unknown origin, purpose unclear. A series of 128 generative geometry generators.
Tywen Kelly
ETH Miner, 2022.
The mediascape breaks free and overflows from a dilapidated miner.
Anya Asano
Unchained, 2022.
Step across the bridge at night and find the lights out.
Alex Crouwers
Tools (v001 and v002), 2021.
Lower Paleolithic French Acheulean hand axe model via Research Labs of Archaeology, University of NC (CC0 Public Domain).
Auriea Harvey
Thou Askest Me Of My Glorious Name, 2021.
A cyclops but also a self.
RAM v2-dv1, 2021.
This small sculpture of Ram is broken, as are all images of Ram historically. It is made of Japanese porcelain repaired in the kintsugi manner, gold at it’s seams. In this case Ram is lined with red silk which can be seen through the gaps. Traditionally, Ram is found with one eye intact, here both eyes are mysteriously missing.
Rodell Warner
Terrarium 001-030, 2021-2022.
Kelly Richardson
Taliman (III), 2022.
A prelude. Radical change comes from radical empathy.
The Talisman series is part a larger body of work which salutes endeavours to positively impact our collective futures.
Dev Harlan
Immaterial Screens (Mbour), 2023.
A 3D scan of a volcanic rock from Mbour, Senegal. A model of a Sony flat screen TV from Turbosquid. Aerial photography of Ivanpah solar facility and Amboy Crater, CA. Gale Crater, Mars. Curiosity Rover heat shield. Netgear routers.
Wonder Valley Iron Age Ghost Honda With Trails, 2023.
A scan of an abandoned motorcycle found at the bottom of an abandoned iron mine. A spherical panorama of the mine interior. Screen buffer trail effects. Extractivism.
***
The dirt road eventually melted away into a sandy wash. Sites of extraction. When we arrived at the skirt of the mine we clambered to the top of the tailings where we found tin soda cans and tractor wheels that might not have moved since they were carelessly tossed aside sometime in the 1960s. The bike was sitting there at the bottom of the mine, still upright on its kickstand as if the owner had just stepped away and might return any time. We came and left while the feeble brush and crystal encrusted rocks stared on in silence.
Alex Crouwers
Diorama: The_Plot / Three Trees, day/night sequence, 2020.
Based on a photogrammetric model of three tree stumps at The Plot (September 2020, 51° 24‘ 49.8” N – 5° 39‘ 19.9” E).
Three tree stumps were left for birds to sit on after a small forest – now called ‘The Plot’ – was cleared due to a climate change induced fatal spruce bark beetle infestation. The stumps resemble a monument, and are treated as such; they’re being ‘charged’ with emblems and plaquettes related to The Plot’s demise.
The Plot is mapped, documented, used as a meeting point, and being prepared for regeneration.
See also: https://solastalgia.theappealoftheunreal.com/ https://goo.gl/maps/ehzNYN3CeGs7TwAz7
RIGHT SCREEN
Stu Sontier
obscured by cloud #1-#52, 2023.
Untitled cloud form via google earth, from the series Equivalence
Equivalence is a gods-eye view of satellite mapping cloud glitches, rendered in Google Earth. It sits in conversation with Alfred Stieglitz’s Equivalents series which looked skyward at clouds for metaphorical content. Although abstracted, Stieglitz sought photographic accuracy. In Equivalence, the various operations of algorithms on visual material introduce techno-visual implications that include the unseen, the fragmentary, and the complicated relationship between the real and the fabricated.
sources: Google Earth, Landsat/Copernicus, Maxar
Chepertom
C̴a̶n̴a̶a̴n̷, 2022.
Day 3 report. Coordinates :
After escaping Grasberg’s landslide we lost track of the coordinates due to high densities of ashes projected in the nearby envirronement. The atmosphere was tainted yellow/grey which made it complicated for our devices to find any proper source of water. After wandering for a day we finally found a place to rest for the next few days. The engine generated a name for it : C̴a̶n̴a̶a̴n̷
T̶e̶r̴r̴a̴ Cognita, 2022.
Day 1 report. Coordinates : 4° 03′ 10″ S, 137° 06′ 57″ E
The journey only begins and we almost lost half of the expedition in a gold and copper landslide at the Grasberg mining site. I am writing down this report a few hours after the incident because words wouldn’t come out before that. Hopefully the engine took off directly after getting the first alert.
Let’s hope we are now flying to a safer place…
B̷i̴n̵g̶h̸a̶m̸, 2022.
Day 21 report. Coordinates 40° 31′ 23″ N, 112° 09′ 04″ O
It was merely impossible to reach any connection for the past two weeks due to the density of copper steam in the athmosphere.. Luckily we came across an open pitt called “B̷i̴n̵g̶h̸a̶m̸” and used it as a natural parabol to get feedbacks from a nearby satellite. At this precise moment the air was so loud due to these steams coming from the ground that the whole crew instantly blacked out. The emergency protocol started to record that incredible scene and gathered all data’s from this place before escaping…
Vanessa Coleman
Works from “Invisible Cities,” 2022
Artist+AI interpreting Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Included here are Isura, Leandra, Penthesilea, and Zora.
Matthew Plummer-Fernandez
Cave Painting (Various), 2021-2022.
The Cave Paintings are produced by a custom neural network system that projects visions onto imaginary caves in response to prompts chosen by the artist.
Chepertom
Containers.ROW, 2021.
Loading l̸o̴o̶p̶, 2022.
Day 5 report. Coordinates : 33°43′48″N 118°15′45″W
Today we found an unstable containers site where all the furniture, automobile parts, apparel, footwear, and electronics were loading in repeat. We used this looping process to fullfill the batteries of the engine, leaving the place with twice it’s original entropy level. It’s just a matter of time before everything collpases into a corrupted chunk of datas.
Entropic_Winds.ROW, 2021.
As I approached East Gate, the Entropic Winds were striking harder and I couldn’t help but to think that this place wasn’t meant for me.
Iñigo Bilbao
Apple IIc (1984), 2021.
Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K (1982), 2021.
iBook G3 (1999), 2022.
Commodore 64 (1982), 2021.
Apple II Plus (1979), 2022.
Amiga 500 (1987), 2021.
Personal computers X-ray image. Radiated by Iñigo Bilbao.
Sabato Visconti
Metarealistic game photography depicting hypercorporate, antisocial, and liminal virtual environments. Spaces in this series were created in “The Life Stage: Virtual House,” a 1993 interior design simulator released for the 3DO console in Japan. Although the game has fallen into obscurity, it is notable for it’s use of photographic gameplay elements within an immersive 3D virtual space.
Normalization Facility (████████████ Site), The Offshore Firm, Volume II, 2023.
// In the midst of crisis, the Offshore Firm board decided to reactivate some of the old Cold War black sites it operated on the side. You never know when a “redacted location” can come in handy. //
Xerox Room 04, The Offshore Firm, 2021.
Server Room 04 / Admin Desk, The Offshore Firm, 2021.
Server Room 01 / Admin Desk, The Offshore Firm, 2021.
Departamento de Operações Estruturadas 01, The Offshore Firm, 2021.
///////// “Você viu aquele prédio lá?” perguntei pra ela. “Ninguem te contou? Uns gringos compraram o predio uns anos atras e trouxeram um arquiteto la da Holanda pra reformar tudo.” De verdade ninguém me contou nada, mas segui. “Não parece que tem um floresta lá dentro?” Ela parou de repente e reparou um papagaio na janela. /////////
Departamento de Operações Estruturadas 04, The Offshore Firm, 2021.
Sanctuary for Wild Copiers, The Offshore Firm, 2021.
//// “These copiers–well, sometimes they regress to a feral state. It’s their instinct, you know.” The Sanctuary Ranger explained, “But we never really decommission them. We bring them here until they are ready to be domesticated again or until they pass from natural causes. Then we use them for parts.” The Ranger lit a cigarette, indulging the silence that followed. The humidity in the sanctuary was suffocating. ////
Everlasting Building
Everlasting Rooms #1-54, 2021-2022.
The Everlasting Building is a construction with no boundaries. Each room is unique. A digital metabolist utopia.
Claudia Braileanu
Untitled (Painting Installation), 2021.
My paintings are sketches for a reality that is disembodied while virtual works become material, in a continuous roleplay between the tangible and the virtual that come to influence one another.
Untitled (Reference for a Landscape Painting), 2021.
`Untitled (Reference for a Landscape Painting)` is part of `Obsolete Landscapes` body of work that focuses on the perception and the representation of the natural landscape filtered by the experience in virtual worlds.
Untitled (Painterly Landscape), 2021.
`Untitled (Painterly Landscape)` is part of `Obsolete Landscapes` body of work that considers the influence of digital culture on landscape representation.
Landscape Reflection Capture, 2021.
Landscape painting reveals natural scenery using understanding and representation patterns that are location and time specific. Individual artistic patterns are adjoined, producing unique perspectives that still withhold the ability to communicate ideas and sentiments in a given context, sometimes creating new representation patterns. `Landscape Reflection Capture` is part of `Obsolete Landscapes` body of work that focuses on the perception and the representation of the natural landscape filtered by the experience in virtual worlds.
Sara Ludy
v94uinba, 2018.
Mollusk, 2017.
Rings, 2017.
Untitled (Back to Life, Back to Reality), 2020.
Shapeshifter, 2019.
Untitled (collapse), 2019.
Setta Studio
Photography and Machine Learning. Dina Chang + Tim Saccenti.
XYLITOL, 2022.
DRAKKAR NOIR, 2022.
EIKO, 2022.
CK ONE, 2022.
VAL, 2022.
SOMNAMBULIST #01, 2022.
HELLO PANDA, 2022.