A Tenth of a Second is a generative and responsive video work that explores how machines see, and how we see what they see. The work is inspired by the tracking systems used in technologies such as self driving vehicles - part of an ongoing research collaboration with Richard Pearce.

The work creates a digital reflection of observers by constantly generating and regenerating a 3-dimensional light field of the adjacent space. Using real-time imagery from an array of cameras, this field – technically known as a Gaussian splat – is continuously refined in order to identify forms within.

The system has no prior knowledge of objects or form and is only concerned with mapping and connecting what it sees. The result is watching a machine discover the world around it: detecting, connecting and quantifying. Visual feedback loops are used to overlay the present with moments just past and point toward future possibilities.

The name A Tenth of a Second comes from the apparent speed of human cognition - the speed it takes for a sensory reading to register in the brain.

 
Credits

Commission by: World of Volvo, Gothenburg, Sweden
Ben Kreukniet: Artist
Richard Pearce: Architect
Valtteri Laihanen: Executive Producer
Louis Mustill: Technical Director
Andy Woortman: Producer
David Li: Visual Programming
Willem Kempers: Creative Technologist
Vincent de Belleval: Lidar Implementation
Fabienne Sommer: Assistant Architect
Ben Lee: Graphic Design
Steven McInerney: Sound Design
With special thanks to Dionne Griffith

Automated Landscape is a generative and responsive video work that explores how machines see. The work is inspired by the tracking systems used in technologies such as self driving vehicles - part of an ongoing research collaboration with Richard Pearce.

The work generates a constantly evolving landscape based on pre-captured environmental photogrammetry data. The system continuously samples elements from multiple datasets and injects them into the sequence, creating an evolving landscape in motion.

As visitors enter and move through the space, their proximity and motion causes fluid disturbances that interrupt and affect the landscape. Constructive interference between multiple viewers creates unexpected compositions with complexity far beyond the initial dataset.

The aesthetic of the work was inspired by a trip to the Engadin valley in Switzerland, a landscape that inspired Gerard Richter’s overpainting and palette knife techniques. Automated Landscape re-interprets these methods in a realtime, digital space, to produce hybrid compositions that alternate between definition and diffuse impressions.


Credits

Commission by: World of Volvo, Gothenburg, Sweden
Ben Kreukniet: Artist
Richard Pearce: Architect
Valtteri Laihanen: Executive Producer
Louis Mustill: Technical Director
Andy Woortman: Producer
David Li: Visual Programming
Willem Kempers: Creative Technologist
Vincent de Belleval: Lidar Implementation
Fabienne Sommer: Assistant Architect
Ben Lee: Graphic Design
Steven McInerney: Sound Design
With special thanks to Dionne Griffith

Fate (sun, moon, rising) uses algorithmically generated astrology readings to subtitle the physical turbulence of a classical ballet.

The work reflects on our trust in algorithms for emotional support, life and romantic guidance, and the seemingly personal nature of these automated systems.

A series of existential and mundane phrases have been sampled from costar, an AI astrology app that provides guidance on themes of mood and emotion, philosophies of life, basic identities, love and pleasure. Motion textures are extracted from a performance of Swan Lake, a romantic tale that ends in betrayal.

The sky is a mirror. Welcome to the void.

Currently on view at San Francisco, Amsteram, offering late night wisdom when you need it most.