By Krystle Murphy
April 30, 2020
Audiovisual technology amplifies our experiences – the way we learn, communicate, entertain, and inspire. With the many ways AV is applied today, art is no exception. The forms art takes in the modern world can go as far as your imagination can stretch. We’re witnessing artists today employ audiovisual technology as their paint brush and canvas to leave people in awe.
AVIXA’s AV Experience Awards celebrates AV as an art in the Best Dynamic Art Experience category. The four finalists feature projects from around the globe that use AV in truly avant-garde ways to delight audiences.
In Nanjing, China, new media studio Ouchhh collaborated with NASA astrophysicist Dawn Gelino to create a permanent 15-ton, 360 LED installation to allow the public to observe the exoplanets (planets that orbit around other stars). The DATA GATE: NASA AI Astronomical Sculpture utilizes machine learning in the context of space discovery and astronomical research through NASA’s Kepler Data. The resulting work invites visitors to plunge into the fascinating world of space discovery through the immersive data sculpture.
New media studio Ouchhh wowed again in Paris where it exhibited the world’s largest AI exhibition at the Atelier des Lumières (The Workshop of Lights). Poetic_Ai uses machine learning and AI algorithms to create immersive art illuminated by 50K pixels and 136 projectors. Ouchhh was inspired by the idea of a poetic breakdown of AI and the theories and text that it may create after being trained on a large quantity of articles and books which approximately would add up to 20 million sentences – ideas about light, physics, space, and time by famous scientists who changed the destiny of the world.
If you attended Integrated Systems Europe or InfoComm in 2019, you were treated to the sight of BARTKRESA studio’s 360-degree projection-mapped sculpture, Sviatovid. Inspired by both a ninth century Slavic deity and a medieval sculpture of the same name, Sviatovid is a fifteen-foot-tall faceted totem. The histories of the deity and medieval statue are the subjects of debate among historians, but BARTKRESA studio took inspiration from the all-seeing nature of the figure. With four faces, Sviatovid was not omniscient, but could literally take in the world in an all-encompassing way. BARTKRESA studio projects a library of animations onto the sculpture as a reflection of Sviatovid’s distinct perspective and journey.
Transporting ourselves to Las Vegas, you’ll find DATALAND: The LINQ Hotel + Experience, which merges digital art and AV to create an immersive experience. Designed by McCann Systems, DATALAND features over 160 displays and several thousand square feet of Unilumin LED and showcases designs by media artist Refik Anadol. This system actively collects data by measuring guests’ locations and actions, converts this data into flowing, beautiful images, and outputs onto a digital canvas for guests to interact with. These digital canvases display constantly changing and never-repeating art and serve as digital wayfinding, collaborative AV, and kinetic architecture.
Digital art installations are everywhere – lighting up our lives, intended to leave a lasting impression. Keep you eyes and imagination open.
The winners of the AV Experience Awards will be announced in June 2020, and they will join a virtual panel discussion during InfoComm 2020 Connected on Tues., June 16, to talk about the challenges and triumphs of their projects.