{"id":3003,"date":"2023-05-25T16:44:57","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T16:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/machine-learning\/2023\/05\/25\/butterfly-effects-digital-artist-uses-ai-to-engage-exhibit-goers\/"},"modified":"2023-05-25T16:44:57","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T16:44:57","slug":"butterfly-effects-digital-artist-uses-ai-to-engage-exhibit-goers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/machine-learning\/2023\/05\/25\/butterfly-effects-digital-artist-uses-ai-to-engage-exhibit-goers\/","title":{"rendered":"Butterfly Effects: Digital Artist Uses AI to Engage Exhibit Goers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

For about six years, AI has been an integral part of the artwork of Dominic Harris<\/a>, a London-based digital artist who\u2019s about to launch his biggest exhibition to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use it for things like giving butterflies a natural sense of movement,\u201d said Harris, whose typical canvas is an interactive computer display.<\/p>\n

Using a rack of NVIDIA\u2019s latest GPUs in his studio, Harris works with his team of more than 20 designers, developers and other specialists to create artworks like Unseen<\/i>. It renders a real-time collage of 13,000 butterflies \u2014 some fanciful, each unique, but none real. Exhibit-goers can make them flutter or change color with a gesture.<\/p>\n

\"Unseen,<\/a>
The Unseen exhibit includes a library of 13,000 digital butterflies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The work attracted experts from natural history museums worldwide. Many were fascinated by the way it helps people appreciate the beauty and fragility of nature by inviting them to interact with creatures not yet discovered or yet to be born.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is a tool in my palette that supports the ways I try to create a poignant human connection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

An Artist\u2019s View of AI<\/b><\/h2>\n

Harris welcomes the public fascination with generative AI<\/a> that sprang up in the past year, though it took him by surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny that AI in art has become such a huge topic because, even a year ago, if I told someone there\u2019s AI in my art, they would\u2019ve had a blank face,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Looking forward, AI will assist, not replace, creative people, Harris said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith each performance increase from NVIDIA\u2019s products, I\u2019m able to augment what I can express in a way that lets me create increasingly incredible original artworks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A Living Stock Exchange<\/b><\/h2>\n

Combining touchscreens, cameras and other sensors, he aims to create connections between his artwork and people who view and interact with them.<\/p>\n

For instance, Limitless<\/i> creates an eight-foot interactive tower made up of gold blocks animated by a live data feed from the London Stock Exchange. Each block represents a company, shining or tarnished, by its current rising or falling valuation. Touching a tile reveals the face of the company\u2019s CEO, a reminder that human beings drive the economy.<\/p>\n

\"Limitless,<\/a>
Harris with \u201cLimitless,\u201d a living artwork animated in part with financial market data.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s one work in Feeding Consciousness<\/i>, Harris\u2019 largest exhibition to date, opening Thursday, May 25, at London\u2019s Halcyon Gallery.<\/p>\n

Booting Up Invitations<\/b><\/h2>\n

\u201cBefore the show even opened, it got extended,\u201d he said, showing invitations that went out on small tablets loaded with video previews.<\/p>\n

The NVIDIA Jetson<\/a> platform for edge AI and robotics \u201cfeatures prominently in the event and has become a bit of a workhorse for me in many of my artworks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

An immersive space in the \"Feeding Consciousness\" exhibition by Dominic Harris<\/a>
An immersive space in the \u201cFeeding Consciousness\u201d exhibit relies on NVIDIA\u2019s state-of-the-art graphics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three years in the making, the new exhibit includes one work that uses 180 displays. It also sports an immersive space created with eight cameras, four laser rangefinders and four 4K video projectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like building unique canvases to tell stories,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Endurace,<\/a>
Harris puts the viewer in control of Antarctic landscapes in \u201cEndurance.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For example, Endurance<\/i> depicts polar scenes Sir Ernest Shackleton\u2019s expedition trekked through when their ship got trapped in the ice pack off Antarctica in 1915. All 28 men survived, and the sunken ship was discovered last year while Harris was working on his piece.<\/p>\n

\"Harris<\/a>
Harris encounters a baby polar bear from an artwork.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was inspired by men who must have felt miniscule before the forces of nature, and the role reversal, 110 years later, now that we know how fragile these environments really are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Writing Software at Six<\/b><\/h2>\n

Harris started coding at age six. When his final project in architecture school \u2014 an immersive installation with virtual sound \u2014 won awards at University College London, it set the stage for his career as a digital artist.<\/p>\n

Along the way, \u201cNVIDIA was a name I grew up with, and graphics cards became a part of my palette that I\u2019ve come to lean on more and more \u2014 I use a phenomenal amount of processing power rendering some of\u00a0 my works,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For example, next month he\u2019ll install Every Wing Has a Silver Lining<\/i>, a 16-meter-long work that displays 30,000 x 2,000 pixels, created in part with GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use the highest-end hardware to achieve an unbelievable level of detail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He shares his passion in school programs, giving children a template which they can use to draw butterflies that he later brings to life on a website.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a way to get them to see and embrace art in the technology they\u2019re growing up with,\u201d he said, comparing it to NVIDIA Canvas<\/a>, a digital drawing tool his six- and 12-year-old daughters love to use.<\/p>\n

The Feeding Consciousness <\/i>exhibition, previewed in the video below, runs from May 25 to August 13 at London\u2019s Halcyon Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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