Designed for 2021 NARS Foundation Satellite Residency application.
Visit to Governors Island and Art Studio in 2018
Intent
Laying on the wooden floor of my apartment, I was admiring the thousand beads of light reflected off the disco ball, through the shapes of the plants and their shadows projected on the wall and the ceiling. To accompany the aesthetic experience, I started playing the sound clip of “Is That All There Is?” by Peggy Lee. Then I tried inputting it into a “music generator” I developed for fun this year. Through this machine, Python code digitizes the sound clip into a programmable format and applies a Fourier transformation to convert musical chords into an array of numbers. I applied further manipulations like filtering and overlaying other sound waves to produce an entirely new sound segment. Unsurprisingly, the output didn’t turn out as melodious as I hoped. I then fine-tuned the program based on musical characteristics including tempo, key, and timbre. The output sounded better but there was still something missing. Likewise, I started to ponder if artificial intelligence (AI) becomes so advanced that it could replace human created music and art? Is that all there is to art?
There seems to be a distinctive human experience that differentiates human created art from AI generated art. To further explore minds and creativity that are uniquely human, I am pursuing the study of art and data science at NYU. Human mind is powerful yet mysterious to most of us; as Strong AI (machines that will be as skillful as humans) matures, we share fear over AI replacing humanity’s role. Intersection of art and data science opens up the undiscovered truth of the human mind which provides evidence to the irreplaceable value of mankind, which is diverse, cultural, complicated and beautiful.
No, that is not all there is to art and humans; there is so much more to explore and discover.
As an artist and technologist, I discuss, test, and demonstrate AI technology used for art production and witness the full extent of its power in the creative world. Regardless, I am a firm believer that the emotional elements throughout the art iteration process and improvisation set humans apart from machines. I am captivated by the magic of art creation. I have enjoyed exploring the various steps involved with the art making - brainstorming, sketching, imagining, iterating, reconstructing, and interacting with audiences. I have experimented with fluid mediums of art, including painting, sculpture, dance composition, coding, and storytelling. Both constant iteration and experimentation have gradually fortified my awareness of the impact of art to creators - the pleasure, expression, emotion, and flow.
Footage on documenting creative process
Project Description
The proposed project for the three month residency is called “Dossier of Art – Governors Island edition”.
Inspired by Simmel's book, "Metropolis and Mental Life" and Packer's, "The Mega City, Decoding the Chaos of Lagos" where both authors explore the concept of surroundings, relationship between individuals and the environment, this project will represent artist’s relationship to oneself, nature, NYC, and the art community on the island. The project is experimental and multidisciplinary as the output includes visual and audio. There are three key outputs to the project: “three months of everyday on GI”, “observations and connections of surroundings”, and visual presentation of art creation on GI. “Three months of everyday on GI” is a multi-media installation that includes color and objects that are sourced locally on GI, audio captured on GI that reflects time spent on the island. This installation represents the moment in time in the unique environment during the three month residency. The actual artwork installation will be tailored for indoor and outdoor viewing and the historic house, dimension will range from 6 foot to 8 foot. Audio captured on the island will be manipulated by a computer program that I will write to change frequency and other audio characteristics to accompany the visual component. “Observations and connections of surroundings” will be sticky notes and journals that captures my observations and interactions with other artists during the residency. The visual presentation of art creation on GI will take input from the observations on the island, artists community and interaction; the presentation will contribute to my research output which draws awareness of art creation and the unique human elements behind the scenes. The key research findings will contribute to papers that I plan to publish this year.
Currently I am piloting my research with 20+ NYU art students during their 2 months final public art project creation for “Urban Art Workshop New York” where she captures organic input from students on “what is driving your art creation”; input formats vary from image, audio, to free form text. The participants come from diverse demographics and majors (film, performing art, music, painting, game design etc.) The output will contribute to the creation of visual art presentation of artists’ iterative process stages. This pilot ends in May and contribute to the final research output to the NARS satellite residency work.
output and impact
Formally studying fundamental principles including aesthetics, philosophy of art in an academic environment will deepen my understanding of art creation and artistry. To support my research areas quantitatively, I desire to further my technical capabilities in data science. Coming from a disciplined engineering background I am very comfortable diving deep into AI and machine learning (ML) theories and expanding my knowledge in collecting, processing, and analyzing data. The union of art and data science is intriguing in that it encourages infinite prospects in applying artistic innovation to engineering. The music generator I created was an example of me practicing studies of math, computer engineering, computer science and music. Data science will arm me with the tools to approach and investigate the art iteration process in an efficient and effective manner while art will trigger my creativity in solving these problems.