Video

Electric Sheep – Interview with Scott Draves

Dated June 12, 2017 Leave a Comment

Electric Sheep Introduction

Electric Sheep is a distributed computing project for animating and evolving fractal flames, which are in turn distributed to the networked computers, which display them as a screensaver.
– Wikipedia

First created in 1999 by Scott Draves, the Electric Sheep is a form of artificial life, which is to say it is software that recreates the biological phenomena of evolution and reproduction through mathematics. The system is made up of man and machine, a cyborg mind with 450,000 participant computers and people all over the Internet.

This is a distributed system, with all participating computers working together to form a supercomputer that renders animations, called “sheep”, that everyone sees. The human participants guide the survival of the fittest by voting for their favorite animations in the flock. You can join this project by downloading the Electric Sheep Screensaver.

Clade 1 at Michael Berger Gallery, Pittsburgh 2010

The Clade 1 Blu Ray showing at Bryan Bilgore’s (sensoriumav.com) place with dynamic lighting by ambx.com (photo by Shannon Harvey).

Dreams in High Fidelity II by Scott Draves. 4 channel HD projection at Lexus Hybrid Art, Moscow 2010.04

On the 2nd largest LED wall in Europe, curated by the Streaming Museum. 2010.08.

Scott Draves speaking at TEDx in Hungary, 2010.06.

Dreams in High Fidelity by Scott Draves. 25 projectors and 5 channels of HD in Hungary 2010.06.

Dreams in High Fidelity by Scott Draves projected at LICHTSTROEME, on the banks of the Rhine in Germany. Photo Jennifer Braun 2012.05.

Karjaka Studios; 2013; Rubin Museum; Green Lama; Linus Roache; Paul Haas

Generation 244 immersive projection at 21c Museum Hotel grand opening, 2013.04.20.

Generation 244 by Scott Draves. Students immersed in projection at Emoção Art.ficial Bienial, in São Paulo 2012.05.

Generation 244 permanently installed in a corporate reception in Manhattan.

Electric Sheep iPad App exhibited in Beijing, curated by ZKM.

Generation 244 Triptych at Vida Retrospective in Madrid, 2012.05.

Generation 244 at LACMA, as curated by Cindy Keefer of the Center for Visual Music. Showing on 3 screens at Renzo Piano–designed Stark Bar in the courtyard. The show ran July 2011 – February 2012.

Generation 244.1 at Microsoft Research Studio 99, 2014.01, Seattle.

In the atrium at MoMA, 2010.12.

Each participating computer follows mathematical instructions, Draves’ Flame algorithm, to render its own piece of the larger work, as seen in the table at left. The images are sent back to a central server which compresses them into animations which are sent back out to the viewers. The electricsheep.org website shows the family tree for each sheep, including its parents and offspring, and viewers can track family resemblance. The artist’s Clade series shows a selection of family members in high resolution.

Like Draves’ other software art, the Electric Sheep code is open source, which has allowed it to benefit from code contributions from many enthusiastic programmers. Now Draves serves as head Shepherd on a project with many participants.

The most popular sheep from the current flock can be viewed on the live server, or you can browse the archive.

– via scottdraves.com

Scott Draves Interview with Surrealism Today

Surrealism Today: You have designed this technology, company & ecosystem. Electric Sheep has taken on a life of its own. In a sense, from a systems perspective, you have developed your own game rules rather than just being another player in someone else’s game. What in your thinking has made that possible?

Scott Draves: That’s right, I definitely think of the Sheep as generative world design. My approach is based on languages and metaprogramming, as a way to cross from finite to infinite. It was made possible by exposure to books like Gödel, Escher, Bach and SICP and my friends and colleagues at Brown and CMU SCS who taught me so much about computers and programming.

ST: In previous interviews, you mention Pollock, Gysin, and Burroughs as artists who inspire you. (Related: Cut-up Technique) Art has changed more in the past hundred years than it ever has, and likely will even more in the next hundred years, where would you like to see it go? Rather than create the content of art, will next-gen artists create algorithms that allows for infinite works of art? If that’s the future, you’ve actually been doing it for some time…

SD: I am loving the Cambrian explosion of software art going on. What are my wishes for art? The more the merrier. Algorithms and coding and infinite art are definitely growing and that’s great. But are they growing popularity in the art world? Maybe? I can’t imagine 100 years in the future. I will admit I’ve been doing this forever, I am old, and got an early start, releasing the first open source art in 1992.

Surrealism Today: Many of the Electric Sheep are reminiscent of mandalas in various religious traditions in both East and West as well as psychedelic and visionary art. These movements seem to have goals in common. Do you have an affinity with any spiritual traditions or movements?

Scott Draves: The Sheep have a meditative aspect for me and a spiritual aspect. Yes, there are goals in common, and affinities. Yoga. Zen. Negentropy. Positivism. Science.

ST: You’ve created this ecosystem of beautiful living mandalas that change over time and breed and evolve and die. Each sheep had DNA (code), its form, not to mention the memetic (conceptual) & cultural level. In what senses are the sheep alive?

SD: Thank you. They are alive because they have emergent complexity, at both the breeding, DNA, evolution level and also in the Flame algorithm, where the image emerges from the DNA. The memetic level kicks in with the open source and allowing others to create their own flames and sheep.

Surrealism Today: What non-intuitive things do you do, think or avoid that may have helped contribute to what you have created?

Scott Draves: When I started doing Open Source it was considered unamerican and anti-capitalist, and literally compared to “cancer”. It turns out sharing code has merit. Actually, that was always intuitive to me but most people just didn’t get it. These days it seems open source has taken over in some domains and is thriving.

On the other hand sharing everything may not be advisable. That was not obvious to me. It took me a long time to learn.

ST: William Gibson mentioned in one of his sci-fi books that instead of writing music, musicians wrote algorithms and the code would generate infinite, unique songs that never repeated themselves. Recently the iPhone app “H__r” got me excited… it loops sounds from the environment into a surreal listening experience. What being created today (that I can perhaps link to) has gotten you excited recently?

SD: Joshue Ott has a bunch of amazing av apps: https://intervalstudios.com/. A bit further afield: Alpha Go, https://deepmind.com/research/alphago/. This is an enormous breakthrough that promises so much to come.

Surrealism Today: I’m super excited about this recent high-resolution release of the sheep, and the subscription. What’s next?

Scott Draves: Thank you.

Dots! The real-time audio interactive version, which premiered last year at Creative Tech Week and is going to be in it again this year: http://creativetechweek.nyc/. The mixed reality party was on the 17th of April, 2017.

ST: Where can we find you on the internet?

https://gold.electricsheep.org/
http://scottdraves.com/
https://twitter.com/scott_draves
https://twitter.com/ElectricSHE3P
https://www.facebook.com/groups/82690628019

Zeitguised’s abstract, surrealistic, strange, video art

Dated November 6, 2016 Leave a Comment

Holy strange eye-candy Batman, what is that? NFW! WTF? It’s Zeitguised again, making magic. Pure, magical, computer generated abstract art. Delicious candy for your eyes. (We originally covered Zeitguised here in 2013.) And wow. It doesn’t get weirder than this.

Watch Zeitguised’s mind-altering videos with sound on. It multiplies the effect.

Geist.xyz

Animated Gif Stills:

AN EXPLORATION OF HANDCRAFTED ALGORITHMIC TEXTILES AND SURFACES

A Ghost in the shell,

>dancing the procedural revolution<.

Algo vs rhythm =
0% organic /
100% processed *
(*Olive, Rose, Mauve and Electric Blue).

Serving suggestions:
Grid wrangling like a pharmacist /
Authentic apparition sequence;

Fake hacks realism,
Small wonders:
Sympathy demons / Uncertainty artefacts

: Synthetic ecstatic aesthetic means
Extended PLAY
Station NSFW.
Incrementally yours,
ZEITGUISED.

– via Geist.xyz

Neural Groove

Synthetic constructions of shapes and structures that have a similar level of complexity as natural occurrences, yet follow rules that are manmade and artificial, and modelled by and according to human thought processes. Some are engineered from physical growth and distribution processes but altered towards a common design goal. The outcome was open in the beginning, so we would not produce something that we would know beforehand, to leave space to explore unknown territory. In the end the topic that crystallised from the results was the juxtaposition of simulated organic topologies and hard mechanic artefacts as they are known from technology production techniques. We produced synthetic spaces in which we invented rules and parameters that let those two formal worlds collide and interact and inform each other.

– via Neural Groove

Void Season

“Void Season” is a simulated fashion project.

Part dreamlike theatre, part lateral cargo cult hustle, a quick succession of bold garment designs acts as an ersatz runway show. In a minimal set of solid backdrops, radiant colors and oblique choreography second the exquisite design of costumes that have been entirely artificially generated.

A wealth of custom procedural surface detail emphasizes the uncanny rift between the realistic presence of the guises and the abstract vacancy of the digitized human movements.

– via Void Season

Void is the fashion of the future.

Comme Dec Organismes

The motion triptych shows an interpretation of what the initial concepts would have looked liked if they were not realised as a line of runway clothes but spontaneously realized themselves as autonomous life forms.

The concept was a result of a collaboration between Antonio Trecel-Diaz, Erik Madigan Heck and Zeitguised.

— via Comme des Organismes/

APPETITE

Dated September 12, 2016 Leave a Comment

APPETITE is a story about a journey into the belly of the beast. It was originally inspired by a painting by Yagama and her poem “I Am Hungry. The APPETITE teaser video, is a standalone surrealist work of video art and gives a glimpse into the world of the longer 15 minute film. It has been shown at Kino Movimento and Cell 63 Gallery in Berlin. The final film will be directed by sisters Yagama and Ilina Perianova, who have recently collaborated on the Eat Me! (https://www.facebook.com/EatMeTheFilm) short musical film and the fairy tale Snegurochka.

APPETITE focuses on the theme of hunger and examines the need for connection that exists in our oversaturated consumerist society. It presents an absurdist allegory of our reality as the digestive system of a mythical rabbit. The journeys of a simple black and white animated hero through it lead the viewer on a grotesque, humorous trip resonating our own issues of desire and excess.

The film’s team is looking for like-minded coproducers and team members. Find out more about the project and connect with them at https://appetiteproject.wordpress.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/appetiteproject/

Here is an extract from the poem “I Am Hungry” by Yagama:

Dinner has commenced
the exquisite glitter of candelight caught
in the mercurial silhouettes of fine cutlery.
No slurping here.
The delicate boullion, though made of the past
is the noble colour of amber.
Spoons are gracious and receptive, like Mother
Then it hits you in the main vein anyway, of course
Knives cut through everything at stake
raw blood drips from empty spaces
Forks aristocratically poke at emotions
appetizing bits of veiled messages brought to the lips…
and the chewing –
you’d think they swallow the pieces whole,
so refined their mouth movements.
But their teeth are sharp.
The salad of confusion sprinkled with apathy
doesn’t excite anyone
but then again, we choose the healthy option.
Forgotten pieces of landmines explode between our teeth
This food is giving me nuclear decomposition.
I am glowing like a lightbulb…

Christie Neptune Surreal Video Art: An Afro-Surrealist Sci-fi Future

Dated July 28, 2016 Leave a Comment

Christie Neptune’s “She Fell from Normalcy” Stills

Two African American Women clutching their heads in agony

Christie Neptune, She Fell from Normalcy Still

Shadow of Self Series

Note On Surrealism, Past and Present

Followers of contemporary surreal art, and perhaps this blog, may forget that surrealism (and it’s precursor, Dada) were politically inspired art movements. Dada’s “anti-philosophy” developed in reaction to World War I. Surrealism became notorious for many reasons. One of these was affiliating itself with the Communist Party, and taking its time in distancing itself from this position after the realities of the Communist Party in Russia became apparent.

But a cursory look at this blog or the Surreal Art Tumblr might get the impression that contemporary surrealism is mainly eye-candy, fantasy, and escapism. Pop Surrealist Mark Ryden’s Meat Show being a glorious exception.

Christie Neptune’s Surreal Video Art

Today we’re pleased to present work by contemporary artist Christie Neptune. Neptune’s video art (below) uses surrealist techniques to explore issues of race, gender, class, and mental health. We’re excited when contemporary artists use the language of surrealism to look at complex issues. Neptune’s work doesn’t oversimplify, or fall into “bumper sticker slogan” or “refrigerator magnet” traps as political art sometimes does. No, that’s the currency of the 24-hour news cycle and the political machines: enticing us with easy answers to difficult problems, and infinitely repeating talking points. Neptune explores complex dynamics in this elegant, inspired, surrealistic video art and exhibition.

She Fell From Normalcy

In She Fell From Normalcy, Christie Neptune uses sound, installation, original writing and video throughout the gallery to build a world stripped of the limitations of race, gender and class. As subject, Neptune employs two females trapped in a sterile, white environment in which they are controlled by an unseen presence; it is only after a cataclysmic break in the system that the females are granted clarity and self-recognition.

Via Hamilton Gallery

She Fell from Normalcy continues through July 30 at Hamiltonian Gallery. For more information, click here.

In 1984, the author and Black feminist, Audre Lorde penned the essay, “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” where a “mythical norm” was defined as “white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure.” Lorde wrote that anyone that exists outside of that identity lives on the margins of “the trappings of power.” In the exhibition She Fell from Normalcy, artist Christie Neptune, counters those hegemonic idealizations described by Lorde through a sci-fi fantasy that centers around blackness, femininity, and a struggle with depression.

Neptune tells The Creators Project, “I deal with depression and it’s my attempt to reconcile that period. I developed this series of work that validates that experience in the African-American female. Depression is typically stigmatized in communities of color. It’s me speaking out and pulling away at those labels that limit my experience.” She adds, “You always hear this thing, ‘black people don’t get depressed that’s some white people shit.’ I decided to build up a mythical norm that is queued to Audre Lorde’s essay, where she describes how we are trying to live up to standards.”

Via Vice
Christie Neptune

The last film by Jan Švankmajer: Insects

Dated June 27, 2016 Leave a Comment

PRESS RELEASE

Legendary filmmaker Jan Švankmajer needs your help to produce his final feature film titled Insects.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-last-film-by-jan-svankmajer-insects–4#/

Campaign story

After five long years of preparations, legendary Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer is almost ready to start filming his final feature film titled Insects, a misanthropic and surreal imagery echoing Kafka and the Čapek Brothers.

Jan Švankmajer (81) and his long-time producing partner Jaromír Kallista (77) are teaming up to make their last feature-length film.

A local pub in a small town. It’s Monday and the bar is closed, chairs are turned up on the tables. The pub is empty except for six amateur actors sitting in a corner. They’ve met to rehearse “The Insect Play” by the Čapek brothers. On a raised platform across the room we see a stage, set for Act II of the play. As the rehearsal progresses, the characters of the play are born and die with no regard to time. The actors slowly become one with them and some of them experience frightening transformations…

“The Čapek brothers’ play is very misanthropic. I’ve always liked that — bugs behave as a human beings, and people behave as insects. My screenplay extends this misanthropy further while also reflecting Franz Kafka and his famous Metamorphosis.

Jan Švankmajer is eager to start filming as soon as possible. He’s very busy visiting entomological auctions, buying various kinds of bugs, doing rehearsal shots with them and so on. But both Jan Švankmajer and Jaromír Kallista have a condition – that the film needs to be fully funded before they start shooting. They would like to make it with a certain grace, not having to hastily secure funding in the process. And to do that, they need your help!

We believe that this last film belongs to all of you – Jan’s loyal fans from around the world. And if you decide to support this film, you’ll get to see it right when it’s finished. That’s why we chose crowdfunding over a maze of distributors, sales agents and so on.

“The civilization we live in has little interest in authentic artistic creation. What it needs is well-working advertisement, the iconographic contemporary art, pushing people towards more and more mass consumption.

It gets increasingly difficult to fund independent art that scrutinizes the very core of our society. Who would deliberately support their own critics? We make a film every five or six years not because of a lack of ideas, but due to the lack of funds to back up our projects. Crowdfunding may be the way to change this.” (JŠ)

We think this is a great opportunity to break a few industry habits but most importantly, deliver this film directly to you. That’s what we want the most, everything else is only a tool how to achieve it.

“To those of you who choose to support our effort, I want to thank you. I promise you that I will invest my entire body and soul into this last feature film of mine. After all, that’s the only way I know how to create.” (JŠ)

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-last-film-by-jan-svankmajer-insects–4#/

Alice by Jan Švankmajer

Praise for Alice

“The rabbit eats his own sawdust stuffing, the jam is full of tacks and the dollhouse becomes Alice’s prison, as Mr. Švankmajer’s extraordinary film explores the story’s dark undercurrents.” – The New York Times

“It’s an astonishing film, a rather Lynchian journey into a dream-world.” – The Daily Telegraph

Alice has received the best feature film award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 1989.

Dimensions of Dialogue

Probably the most famous of Jan’s shorts, Dimensions of Dialogue is an uncompromising look on some of the more negative aspects of how we communicate. Best to see for yourself.

Via Indiegogo