“Quantum Memories“ is Refik Anadol’s most technically and conceptually ambitious work to date. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, the work explores the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence, machine learning and quantum computing to visualise an everchanging large-scale immersive multimedia artwork.
New media artist Refik Anadol has created a body of work that locates creativity at the intersection of humans and machines. His site-specific parametric data sculptures, live audio/visual performances and immersive installations take many forms, while encouraging us to rethink our engagement with the physical world, its temporal and spatial dimensions, and the creative potential of the machine.
In Quantum Memories2020 Anadol is harnessing a dataset drawn from over two hundred million images linked to nature from publicly available internet resources and processed using quantum computing with machine learning algorithms. Anadol’s work uses the data to speculate an alternate dimension of the natural world as a complex cultural entity with memory.
The first true quantum artwork created, Anadol’s arresting visuals and accompanying audio are composed in collaboration with a generative algorithm enabled by AI. In taking the data that flows around us as his primary material and the neural network of a quantum mind as his collaborator, Anadol paints with a thinking brush offering us radical visualisations of our digitised memories of the natural realm. By representing the complexity of our collective memory in the largest digital artwork staged by the NGV, the artist encourages us to imagine the beginning of a quantum computerised mind and its immense potential for the future of art and design.
Refik Anadol Quantum Memories on display in NGV Triennial 2020 from 19 December 2020 – 18 April 2021 at NGV International, Melbourne.
The art world was particularly hard hit since the onset of Covid. Artists, galleries and museums all needed to drastically adjust to a new world. Public spaces were shuttered, thus most artist’s shows were cancelled, leaving them disenfranchised and unmotivated to produce new work. Collectors were too distracted and concerned about their health and family to support the arts. No Basel. No Frieze. No fairs to view art, gather and socialize. Sans art fairs left many small and medium sized galleries with a massive deficit in their income.
In my 20 years as a gallerist I have never seen anything like it. Virtual and digital initiatives became a necessity to stay relevant and survive. The art fairs attempted to create online platforms, but most were novice and ineffectual. They were basically glorified web sites, nothing original or engaging. Since my gallery is very experienced in new media and online realms we were able to adapt and produce a range of online exhibitions that received favorable press, but sales were still a challenge. Virtual platforms such as Mozilla Hubs and New Art City provided us novel ways to present exhibitions and interact with visitors. We had a solo show with Siebren Versteeg that was embedded entirely in an email. For one of our group shows, Tree of Life, we worked with 2 artists to curate and build a unique website which was the only way to view the exhibition.
Claudia Hart, The Ruins, 2020 Three-channel video animation (color, sound), three screens or projectors, media players, speakersץ Screen size variable, Ed 3, 1 AP
Offering video artworks became a desirable option during the pandemic. Using video art distribution platforms such as NIIO I was able to curate shows online and present them to collectors and curators. We shared the actual video artworks in high resolution, maintaining the integrity of the art vs. exhibiting low quality representations of 2D works in a poorly designed web site.
Daniel Canogar, Loom, 2020 Generative animation (color, silent), computer, screen. Dimensions variable, portrait orientation. Edition of 7, 1 AP
Although this past year has seen unprecedented challenges, many artists and galleries have deepened their connection to new media and virtual environments. This new knowledge will permanently be embedded in both artist’s practice and future gallery programming– better preparing us all for the next challenge that arises.
It has long been postulated by psychologists and scientists alike that a work environment which provides employees access to art inspires higher productivity rates and a better emotional climate. Countless studies conducted in recent years have indicated that workers who were surrounded by artworks in their office spaces were more incentivized to immerse themselves deeply in their professional commitments.
An avid example of such research is one that was published in Britain in 2016 by a team of researchers led by Dr. Craig Knight, who has been studying the psychology of working environments for over a decade at the University of Exeter. Dr. Knight told the Guardian at the time that he has noted that there is a “tendency to opt for sanitized, lean workspaces” that are “designed to encourage staff to avoid distraction.” However, the results of the study he had carried out with a group called Identity Realisation (IDR) revealed that “if you enrich a space people feel happier and work better; a very good way of doing this is by using art.”
Deutsche Bank London’s reception features art by Anish Kapoor and Damien Hirst. The bank has 60,000 artworks across 40 countries. Photograph: Deutsche Bank (Originally published by the Guardian)
Knight reached this conclusion while he attempted to understand what would make a work environment effective. He asked a group of participants to complete an hour’s worth of work in four different types of office spaces: Lean (containing only the necessary elements to do a task), enriched (including art and plants arranged in advance), empowered (same art and plants but participants could select where to place them) and disempowered (participants could arrange the art and plants but the experimenter then undid these personal touches).
What Knight discovered is that the individuals who worked in the enriched offices were 15 percent quicker than those employed in the lean office, and reported less health complaints. The figure doubled for those who worked in the empowered space.
Moving Image Artwork by Zeitguised at Meet In Place, London. Photo by Tom Mannion.
Numerous companies, including those generating the most revenues and interest in markets worldwide today, have implemented the conclusions of studies such as Knight’s into their design of the work space. Some of the most well-known examples that come to mind are the offices of Apple, Facebook and Google. These corporations have famously hired esteemed architects to create beautiful work spaces for their employees and filled them with gorgeous artworks to inspire enjoyment and efficiency.
One example for a prominent brand that decided to make new media art a core aspect of its design is SalesForce, the U.S. cloud-based software company. The company invited media artist Refik Anadol to enhance its headquarters in California with his public art project, “Virtual Depictions: San Francisco.” The stunning work, composed of a series of parametric data sculptures that depict the story of the urban environment sprawled outside SalesForce’s offices, was displayed on a large LED screen visible to passersby walking near the building. Thus, both workers of the company and residents of the metropolitan were able to enjoy the art that was inspired by their lives and reflected to them a visual narrative they could connect with.
The incorporation of art into the work sphere doesn’t just benefit the business sector. It also helps support the creative community, whose members often struggle financially and depend on their galleries and collectors for inconsistent incomes. Another important advantage inherent in the integration of art into the business space is the impact it provides for both artists and businesses that want to cultivate their own unique statement.
So while it’s clear that there are more pros than cons to the inclusion of art in the work surroundings, a new question now arises: How can this be accomplished at a time when most of us are still shuttered in our homes since the outbreak of the coronavirus?
The arts and culture industry has already started making the leap from physical to digital, or attempts to connect the two where possible. Large events that brought people together are now offering an online alternative, such as the Burning Man festival that is taking place in cyberspace this year instead of its usual location in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Companies like Netflix are taking advantage of the current circumstances that have imposed a partial or complete isolation on most of us. The U.S. production company and streaming service has recently introduced a feature especially adequate for our times – the Netflix Watch Party, whereby users can join group chats and enjoy a synchronized video playback so the viewing experience can be shared.
Exhibition spaces are also harnessing the technological means at their disposal to continue providing art connoisseurs a personal viewing experience even if they can’t engage with the artworks face to face. Creative ventures like Bitforms Gallery have rendered digital art exhibitions accessible online, like the most recent solo show by American artist Claudia Hart, “The Ruins,” in which she presents her aesthetic interpretations of ruminations on an apocalyptic and disjointed world. Animation, augmented wallpapers, three-dimensional sculptural objects and other projects crafted by the esteemed creator and curator and presented on screens powered by Niio, would not have enjoyed viewership in the days of the pandemic had the gallery not opted for the online presentation mode.
The Ruins by Claudia Hart. Virtual Exhibition.
In the business sector, matters are more complicated. Even if some countries have eased the social distancing measures that were initiated earlier this year, many workers are now still partially working from their homes and only venturing into their offices part-time. Online meetings have become the new norm overnight, and our living rooms have quickly transformed from places of repose to areas of work.
The good news is that employers can still cultivate pleasant surroundings for their workers, even if they are not all sharing the same space as before. All they require are the suitable digital tools that will assist in keeping their clients and employees connected. One way to do it is for business owners to digitally share with their workers art that will enhance their creativity and reduce their stress levels, a welcome feeling at such a period of intense uncertainty.
While bosses can go the old-fashioned way and send their staff static images of visual art, a more compelling medium that could draw their attention is digital art, namely moving image creations. Easier to transfer online and often more communicative and relatable than the average abstract painting, digital art was having its moment well before the pandemic upended our lives earlier this year.
Artwork by Claudia Hart.
The era we live in is indisputably inundated with screens and surfaces, making video art one of the most adaptable and relevant forms of art. If video art was only an emerging artistic phenomenon in the 1960s and the 1970s, today it is an inseparable part of the curriculum in major academic art institutions around the globe, a creative medium of choice for young artists and a central component of the collections of leading museums and galleries.
If you are wondering how to make your workers engage with video art and are not sure how to start, our platform is the first step on the way. If you are an employee or a business owner looking to enrich your online meetings, you are welcome to try out our selection of free Zoom backgrounds. The collection, which features carefully curated options crafted by talented international artists, can make it seem like you are in an aesthetic mansion with video art collections decorating the walls. You can also boost a digitized conference by installing in the background a single video artwork of the various creations we have on offer.
Niio’s digital art solutions are an easy way to increase your brand’s equity, make it memorable and expose it to as many viewers as possible. We have recently collaborated with various powerhouse companies, both in the realm of art as well as in marketing, to ensure that the artworks of the creators we team with will reach diverse viewers. One such joint venture has led to our campaign with Uber; various video ads, decorated by moving image artworks from our platform, are now displayed on screens installed atop Uber’s fleet of cars in major U.S. cities.
Another cooperative venture that has given voice to the work of artists throughout the world is the open call competition we launched with Samsung. Out of hundreds of submissions, three winning artworks selected by our panel of judges will be screened in select locations globally on Samsung’s The Wall, a top-of-the-line microLED display that will enhance the viewing experience these oeuvres deserve.
It is our mission to provide you with the most technologically advanced means to grace your companies or offices with art that will inspire and move you. Our display solutions have been developed and customized to showcase moving image art in the best conditions. Usable on both dedicated and shared screens and easy to install on existing screens, they are designed to ensure the optimal presentation. If you are not sure that you would like to commit to a year-round plan, our affordable subscription model, which comes in various options, will enable you to sample the services we provide.
Niio is rapidly becoming the equivalent of Spotify in the art world. We are the leading platform for connecting thousands of artists and galleries from all over the world that specialize in digital art. We turn screens on walls into digital art canvases that display beautiful moving artworks, which transform spaces and inspire audiences globally.
We began partnering with leading artists and galleries well before the pathogen emerged in order to create and sustain an alternative platform for the distribution and display of art. Our vision has now become more relevant than ever: Showcasing quality art online is not plan B or an undesired recourse. It is the natural next step to take for artists, exhibition spaces and businesses that want to display art that communicates and transcends geographical and cultural barriers.
A discussion that is focusing on the Intersection of Art and Technology with keynote speakers, renowned artist innovator, Janet Echelman and Rob Anders, Co-founder and CEO of Niio, an Israeli startup company holding one of the biggest names in “new media art” and aspires to become the Spotify of visual art. The conversation also includes an update about how the tech eco-systems in both Florida and Israel are thriving despite the pandemic. Jamal Sowell, Florida Secretary of Commerce and the President & CEO of Enterprise Florida provides updates on Florida’s tech ecostyem and Ori Kaufman-Gafter, Head of International and Tech banking at Bank Leumi USA, provides insights on how the Israeli tech ecosystem weathered the pandemic. Keeping with FIBA’s tradition of featuring success stories of Israeli companies thriving in Florida, this year’s event featured Israeli company, Aviv Clinics, that recently launched its hyperbaric clinic in The Villages. David Globig, CEO of Aviv Clinics explains why Aviv chose Florida as its first site outside of Israel and how the technology works.
The Ruins implements still lifes, the classical form of a memento mori, to contemplate the decay of western civilization. In this exhibition, Hart revises the canons of modernist painting and the manifestos of failed utopias. Exhibited works are meditations on the flow of history, expressed as a cycle of decay and regeneration. The Ruins is an antidote to a world in crisis, navigating from a Eurocentric paradigm of fixed photographic capture into a reality of malleable and inherently unstable computer simulations and systemic collapse. The exhibition presents a different notion of time, a present that viewers experience through the possibility of simulation technologies that use scientific data to model natural forces, the crystallization of past, future and present into a perpetual now.
The Ruins , the central artwork from which the exhibition gains its title, is an audiovisual animation tracking through a claustrophobic game world from which there is no escape. As the three-channel maze unravels, Hart introduces her newest interpretation of still lifes—low polygon models. These models, hearkening to the idea of a poor copy or image popularized by Hito Steryl, are computer-made replications of copyright-protected paintings. Taken from works by Matisse and Picasso, patriarchs of the Modernist canon, these forms cover The Ruins in flirtatious copyright infringement. Copyright marks the beginning of Modernism as a response to the emerging technology of photography. Music composed by Edmund Campion furthers the ethos of modernism through the tactical mixing of failed Utopian ideologies: Thomas Jefferson On American Liberty ; The Bauhaus Manifesto by Walter Gropius; Fordlandia , Henry Ford’s failed suburban rubber plantation in the Amazon rainforest; and Jim Jones’s sermon, The Open Door . Campion has processed and mixed each recording read by the artist, using Hart’s voice as an instrument that serves as the soundtrack to both the animation and the exhibition itself.
The Still Life With Flowers by Henri Fantin-Latour exists as a three-dimensional sculptural object made from walnut, bleached basswood, and maple, with blossoms in burnished resin. It is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy—and therein lies its unique character. Hart created this work first through production with a computer model, developed in fastidious imitation of the 1881 original. She then transitioned the digital rendering to a physical object with a CNC router and rapid-prototype printer. Later returning to the model, she dissolved the source into a low polygon model to be placed within The Ruins . Together in the exhibition, the poor copy and sculptural form incite an allegory on the passage of time, decay, and obsolescence.
The third component in The Ruins is Hart’s custom augmented wallpapers. Borrowing motifs that also appear inside her animations, the artist telescopes time and space from her virtual world to real life. Using The Ruins App , visitors can see animations embedded in the wallpaper that combine written allegories, animated abstract patterns, and heraldries of collapsed corporate empires, made visible only through the camera of a smart device.
The final part of this exhibition comes as a series of three monumental animations, The Orange Room, Green Table, and Big Red . In continuation of her study of copyright-protected twentieth-century painting, these video animations were prompted by the significant collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and her work there as a professor at the School of the Art Institute. Hart imports the compositional structures of The Red Paintings by Henri Matisse to propose a paradigm shift in painting practice, creating monumental animations at real painting scale. These works are constructed as images-within-images, architectures that open onto windows and doors, and lead into simulated landscapes bestowed with animated paintings, carpets and wallpapers. The digital, pictorial clockworks turn at different rates and temporal schemes to mesmerize viewers, ushering them into a state of contemplation.
Music and software programming for the custom algorithmic sound engine by Edmund Campion, Director, Center for New Music and
Audio Technologies, UC Berkeley. Original spoken voice recording by Claudia Hart. This piece utilizes the CNMAT “Resonators~”
synthesis object designed by Adrian Freed. Special thanks to Jeremy Wagner and CNMAT for support with sound installation.
The Ruins is live as a virtual exhibition for Mozilla Hubs, designed and supported by Matthew Gantt. It is featured in Ars Electronica ’s
2020 festival hub, along with a video interview with Claudia Hart about the project.
Screens generously provided by Samsung. Video powered by NIIO.
Founded in 2001, bitforms gallery represents established, mid-career, and emerging artists critically engaged with new technologies. Spanning the rich
history of media art through its current developments, the gallery’s program offers an incisive perspective on the fields of digital, internet, time-based,
and new media art forms. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected] or call (212) 366-6939.
Dev Harlan works in sculpture, installation and digital media. He has exhibited in solo and group shows internationally, including “Noor” at the Sharjah Art Museum, the New Museum’s “Ideas City” and the Singapore Light Festival. He has completed residencies at the Frank Lloyd Wright School Of Architecture and the School Of Visual Arts. He is a self educated artist with a studio practice founded on experience, self directed study and curiosity.
As the winner of Samsung The Wall x Niio Art Award, Dev Harlan provides insight into his artistic practice and direction and the background of the Areo Gardens Series.
