Explore the latest Polish XR works created with the help of emerging technologies
We are currently in the middle of the “third wave of AI” which will most likely end up with the development of Artificial General Intelligence. Whether this will be a collective “third eye awakening” or something completely different, is what XRossspace try to answer with a carefully curated program of VR works, interactive installations, workshops, and talks with their Polish creators.
The main experience of XRosspace is a physical exhibition at Studio space in London’s ICA. This bespoke arranged space will feature a curated selection of VR works by Polish creators. The winners of the AI ART AWARD and OPENBRUSH AWARD will be a highlight of this space alongside custom lighting, projection mapping, and interactive installations.
ICA Showcase ICA London, SW1Y 5AH
Thu 14 March - 4.30pm - 8pm
Fri 15 March - 12.30pm - 8pm
Sat 16 March - 12.30pm - 8pm
Sun 17 March - 12.30pm - 8pm
Entry: £6
Projects presented as part of the showcase:
VR experiences:
CLOSE – HANA UMEDA (VR 3DOF, 18min)
Jiutamai is a form full of contradictions. It is a woman’s voice expressed without words. It is a space of emancipation closed within the strict limits of the form. It is an accusation made against men, but in the form of an erotic dance performed to the delight of a client. These landscapes are created in an almost intimate distance between the viewer and the dancer. It is an experience here and now of a history from hundreds of years ago, a physical embodiment of long-gone performers.
In “Close”, Hana Umeda and Sada Hanasaki, who represent two dance experiences in one body, two stories arranged in an intimate confession, await you. Their voices can also be interwoven with silence that allows to contemplate the movement itself. In the end, however, the safe circle and the rhythm of a close encounter are broken. The performer takes control of reality.
I AND I – MARTA KLARA - (VR 6DOF, 5min)
ini (I and I) is a simulation of a digital farewell service. Death and immortality are reimagined as a bespoke, multi-sensory space of remembrance and preservation of human legacy.
ini is the brainchild of Marta Klara who sought to perform the act of worldbuilding as well as conceive of a contemporary rite of passage through life-affirming digital commemoration. The artist undertook an experiment of digital mummification in a speculative 3D environment where she buried her avatar, letting go of her old identity.
USER AGREEMENT – RAFAŁ KRUSZKA (VR 6DOF, 10min)
By exploring the spaces within the VR 6DoF experience, the participant gains access to digital tools that enable the expansion of the senses. The synesthetic language of simulation provides the immersed individual with the opportunity to discover content generated by artificial intelligence models. The simulation of thoughts, speech, and emotions, as well as the self-awareness of technology and the mechanisms constructing it, undergo self-analysis by the system itself. This allows the experiencer to gain insight into the digital world, creating a portal to the brain and heart of algorithmic structure.
AI works:
XR_ OPENBRUSH AWARD (VR SCULPTED 3D MODEL)
As part of the showcase programme we will feature winners of Openbrush VR ART competition.
Open Brush is a room-scale 3D-painting virtual-reality application available for virtual reality headsets for free.
XR_ AI ART AWARD (NARRATIVE VISUAL WORK)
As part of showcase programme we will feature winners of AI ART competition.
We accept narrative visual work entries which are composition of minimum of 4 panels / images or a video.
AM I AI? - Holycircuit studio (interactive installation)
Interactive installation mirroring the person's appearance and behavior using generative AI networks. Ever-morphing visual recreations raise awareness of a latent space coexisting as another dimension of reality, alongside physical and digital.
On the 17th of March - Time TBC - 'Human and Machine Creativity' (Screening + Talk)
It seems that both humans and machines possess the ability to generate novel ideas, solutions, and artifacts, albeit through different mechanisms and processes. What does it mean to be artist at the nexus of art, technology, and innovation? Is AI-amplification of creativity just a trend or inevitable development? Can humans still thrive without machines?
For the closing night of the XRossspace24 showcase, this special event will feature different approaches towards AI-amplified creativity. Each speaker will present their AI-amplified work and will contextualise it further with a short presentation.
The Gift of the World (Oedipus on the Jetty)
Dir. Joanna Zylinska, 2021, 9 mins
Is AI a threat to human lives – or can it help us envisage a better future? Joanna Zylinska’s short experimental film, A Gift of the World (Oedipus on the Jetty), offers a posthumanist take on the apocalyptic themes of the present moment.
Telling a gender fluid narrative of survival as dreamed up by the film’s director in co-creation with AI algorithms, it dismantles the myth of the male saviour in European history and the traditional family structure that props it.
A Gift of the World (Oedipus on the Jetty) remediates Chris Marker’s famous apocalyptic photofilm, La Jetée, by training a StyleGAN2 model on stills extracted from Marker’s original while having a script written with the assistance of an AI language model. In this way, the film enacts an opening within our dominant stories of social, political and environmental malaise, while showing us that machines can dream in unexpected ways.
As part of the screening, Zylinska will introduce her film while offering some wider reflections on its socio-political and technical aspects.
Joanna Zylinska is a writer, lecturer, artist and curator, working in the areas of digital technologies and new media, ethics, photography and art. She is Professor of Media Philosophy + Critical Digital Practice at the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London. She is also a member of Creative AI Lab, a collaboration between King’s and Serpentine Galleries. Prior to joining King’s in 2021, she worked for many years at Goldsmiths, University of London, including as Co-Head of its Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies. She has held visiting positions as Guest Professor at Shandong University in China, Winton Chair Visiting Scholar at the University of Minnesota, US, and Beaverbrook Visiting Scholar at McGill University in Canada.
http://www.joannazylinska.net/
“The Wizard of AI”
Dir. Alan Warburton, 2023, 20 mins
The Wizard of AI is a twenty minute, 99% AI-generated visual essay in which a hoodie-wearing faceless ‘AI Collaborator’, voiced by the artist, is our critically incisive guide. Defining this particular epoch as one of “wonder-panic”, Alan Warburton takes us on a speeding visual rollercoaster of flawlessly executed visual styles, encompassing histories of comic books, animation VFX and film.
Alan Warburton is a London-based researcher, artist, animator, filmmaker, writer, curator and critic. He is currently researching digital images and labour for a PhD at Birkbeck’s Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology. Alan’s work — particularly his video essays —have become central to critical discourse around computer graphics and digital image cultures of the 21st century.
Drass- Lynchian Sinister Electronics
Dir. Eric Drass, AV performance, 20 mins
Eric Drass is an artist making work in a range of media, from painting to music, to machine-learning AI art. Some of his favourite themes are identuty, cosciousness, teh philosphical ramifications of artificial intelligence, big data and the relationship between humans and machines. Sometimes this work is political, frequenty it is playful, often it is provocative or transgressive in some way. His works are frequently reported and cited online (The Giardian, BBC4, Wikipedia etc.)
Workshops:
14th March - AR FILTERS with MATKASUKCESU
(free workshop over zoom - in Polish)
AR effects are the perfect tool to improve your brand image, promote events and show that your brand is up to date with the latest technologies. They are also a great way to generate user-generated content (UGC – User Generated Content) and can also support RTM (Real Time Marketing).
These filters are more than just visual effects – they are an additional content format that provides us with valuable statistical information. If you think that magic does not exist, this is a sure sign that you need to take part in this workshop!
16th March - METASPACES with SENSOSIS
(free workshop over zoom - in Polish)
Participants will explore the immersive Sci-Fi environments created and tailored for the workshop. In addition, during the workshop, participants will get an opportunity to create their customizable metaspaces. These custom rooms will be created using Spoke - a free web-based tool integrated with Mozilla Hubs platform. Fully cross-platform, multi-user, and straightforward.
XR_HUB:
An online metaspace with browser-accessible digital content. Opening 14 March 2024
The XRossspace Showcase is organised by the Polish Cultural Institute in London, the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and Holycircuit.
