CAN Favourites 2018 – Vote Now!
Help us select the most memorable projects of 2018: vote once per candidate, skip the ones you don’t like as much or just think should not be in the top 10. We will tally the votes and announce “CAN’s Favourites of 2018” on Monday, 31st December!
Voting closes on Friday 28th December 23.00 (GMT) CLOSED
CAN 2018 – Highlights and Favourites
As 2018 comes to a close, we take a moment to look back at the outstanding work done this year. From spectacular machines, intricate tools and mesmerising performances and installations to the new mediums for artistic enquiry – so many great new projects have been added to the CAN archive! With your help we selected some favourites.
31/12/2018
The Center for Counter-Productive Robotics – Human-centric approach to automation
Created at ECAL during a one week workshop led by Thibault Brevet, The Center for Counter-Productive Robotics is a collection of experiments where a robot was programmed to perform counter-productive tasks, with intention to develop a more human-centric approach to robotics.
17/12/2018
NORAA (Machinic Doodles) – A human/machine collaborative drawing
Created by Jessica In, Machinic Doodles is a live, interactive drawing installation that facilitates collaboration between a human and a robot named NORAA – a machine that is learning how to draw. The work explores how we communicate ideas through the strokes of a drawing, and how might a machine also be taught to draw through learning, instead of via explicit instruction
11/12/2018
AI Facial Profiling, Levels Of Paranoia – Exploring the effects of algorithmic classification
Created by Marta Revuelta, AI Facial Profiling, Levels of Paranoia is a project exploring the potential and implication of AI technologies by proposing a machine that recognises the ability of an individual to handle firearms and predicts their potential to cause harm from a biometric analysis of their face.
29/11/2018
Bit – The demise of chance and the rise of algorithm
Created bu Jonghong Park at the University of the Arts Bremen (Digital Media Program), the installation ‘bit’ represents a natural random process based on the principle of a Markov chain.
27/11/2018
Manus – Exploring pack behaviours in autonomous robots
Created by Madeline Gannon for the 2018 Annual Meeting of New Champions at the The World Economic Forum, in Tianjin, China, Manus is a set of ten industrial robots that are programmed to behave like a pack of animals.
08/11/2018
Future Flora – Celebrating Female Biophilia
Questioning our notions of wellbeing to develop innovative tools in the intersection of medical and social sciences, Giulia Tomasello investigates the potential of biotechnology and living materials, proposing a biological and sustainable alternative for electronic textiles and more.
05/11/2018
Putting The Pieces Back Together Again – The order of chaos
Created by Ralf Baecker, Putting The Pieces Back Together Again is an artistic investigation and meditation about complex systems and scientific methodology. Consisting of 1250 stepper motors arranged in a two dimensional grid, each motor in the installation moves in a random direction, sometimes intersecting and reversing direction, producing emergent constellations and behaviours.
02/11/2018
300000 km/s – Visualising ping for interplanetary communication
Created by André Andrade at ECAL (Media and Interaction Design Unit), 300000 km/s is a data visualisation project to highlight the consequential delay in communication in the probable future (interplanatory) expansion of the territory of Man.
24/10/2018
Weather Thingy – Real time climate sound controller
Created by Adrien Kaeser at ECAL (Media and Interaction Design Unit), Weather Thingy is a custom built sound controller that uses real time climate-related events to control and modify the settings of musical instruments.
16/10/2018
House Party – Scavenged, mechanical and synthesised orchestra
Created by Neil Mendoza during an artist in residence at Recology SF, House Party is a musical installation that explores prized possessions in their native habitat. All the materials used to create this artwork, from the furniture to the computers, were scavenged from the discarded trash. The music is a mix of mechanical and synthesised sounds.
15/10/2018
Prélude in ACGT – Sonification of personal (DNA) data
Created by Pierry Jaquillard at ECAL (Media and Interaction Design Unit), Prélude in ACGT is collection of tools that explore the relationship between music and biology. The project uses Pierry’s own DNA (chromosome 1 to 22) and converts it into music.
10/10/2018
Connected Tools – Devices that mediate smartphone consumption
Created by Giulio Barresi at ECAL (Media and Interaction Design Unit), Connected Tools is a series of objects that explore alternative rituals that could lead to a more reasonable consumption of mobile technologies.
05/10/2018
Fiberbots – Framework for cooperative (swarm) robotic manufacturing
Created by the team at MIT Media Lab’s Meditated Matter Group, Fiberbots is a digital fabrication framework fusing cooperative swarm robotic manufacturing with abilities to generate highly sophisticated material structures.
27/09/2018
Horror Vacui – Exploring Earth’s (un)real geological formations
Created by Matteo Zamagni, “Horror Vacui” is a non-narrative film that explores geological formations of Earth and the frenetic hyper-development attained by humankind.
19/09/2018
Encounter – Suspiciously curious robotics
Created by Piet Schmidt during the summer semester at UdK Berlin (New Media / Digital Class), Encounter is a a robotic arm with a mirror that curiously observes its surroundings.
17/09/2018
Face Trade – Art vending machine that trades mugshots for “free” portraits
Face Trade is an Art Vending Machine created by Matthias Dörfelt that dispenses unique prints of computer generated face drawings. Instead of paying with money, buyers trade a mugshot that is taken on the spot in order to be permanently stored in the Ethereum Blockchain, consequently turning the transaction into a semi-permanent Face Swap.
14/09/2018
Uncanny Rd. – Drawing tool to interactively synthesise street images
Uncanny Rd. is a drawing tool that allows users to interactively synthesise street images with the help of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). The project was created as a collaboration between Anastasis Germanidis and Cristobal Valenzuela to explore the new kinds of human-machine collaboration that deep learning can enable.
06/09/2018
The chAIr Project – Reversing the role of human and machine in the design process
The chAIr Project is a series of four chairs created using a generative neural network (GAN) trained on a dataset of iconic 20th-century chairs with the goal to “generate a classic”. The results are semi-abstract visual prompts for a human designer who used them as a starting point for actual chair design concepts.
09/08/2018
Apparatum – Inspired by the Polish Radio Experimental Studio
Created by panGenerator, “Apparatum” is a custom made apparatus with digital interface that emits purely analogue sound. It is inspired by the heritage of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio – one of the first studios in the world producing electroacoustic music.
25/07/2018
Sorting – Visualisation, sortification and sonification of an algorithm
Created by Ren Yuan, Sorting is an algorithm visualization and sonification created using Processing.
24/07/2018
MoonQuest – Procedurally generated adventure game
Created by Wizard Mode (Ben Porter), MoonQuest is a single-player procedurally-generated adventure game set in a strange nocturnal world. The gameplay is a mix of roguelike and minecraftian genres and sits somewhere between Terraria and Spelunky, with the main aim to search the generated world for moonstones.
23/07/2018
Sonic Playground – Playful acoustics by Yuri Suzuki Design
Created by Yuri Suzuki Design in collaboration with High Atlanta, Sonic Playground is an outdoor sound installation that features ingenious, colourful sculptures that modify and transmit sound in unusual, engaging and playful ways.
19/07/2018
ChineseWhispers – Inaccurately transmitted gossip
Created by Saurabh Datta, “ChineseWhispers” is an installation comprised of four head figures performing “Chinese Whispers” – a sequence of repetitions of a story, each one differing slightly from the original, so that the final telling bears only a scant resemblance to the original.
16/07/2018
Zero One – Generative video for Zero One Technology Festival
Created by Raven Kwok in collaboration with L.A. based producer / music technologist Mike Gao, Zero One is a code-based generative video commissioned by Zero One Technology Festival 2018 in Shenzhen, PR China.
06/07/2018
The Night Journey – Game by Bill Viola and USC’s Game Innovation Lab
Created as a collaboration between the Game Innovation Lab and the American video artist Bill Viola, The Night Journey is an experimental art game that uses both game and video techniques to tell the story of an individual’s journey towards enlightenment.
04/07/2018
Narciss – AI whose only purpose is to investigate itself
Created by Waltz Binaire, Narciss is a robot that uses artificial intelligence to analyse itself, thus reflecting on its own existence. Comprised of Google’s Tensorflow framework and a simple mirror, the experiment translates self-portraits of a digital body into lyrical guesses.
25/06/2018
HALO – Sculpting the sunlight into (im)material form
Created by Kimchi and Chips and currently on view at the Somerset House in London, HALO is a new installation in the series of works by the Seoul based Mimi Son and Elliot Woods where light is sculpted to create form that exists between material and immaterial.
20/06/2018
Zoological – Autonomous flying spheres at the Roundhouse
Created by Random International, Zoological is a flock of autonomous, flying spheres that move collectively. Algorithmically driven, the spheres react to their surroundings and, sometimes, to people within their environment.
11/06/2018
MULTIVERSE – The eternal birth and death of infinite parallel universes
“Multiverse” is the new audio-visual installation by fuse* that draws inspiration from these concepts and, through the creation of a sequence of digital paintings, generated in real-time, attempts to represent the eternal birth and death of infinite parallel universes.
07/06/2018
Aerobanquets RMX – An Immersive Gastronomic Experience
Created by Mattia Casalegno and presented in collaboration with the chef Flavio Ghignoni Carestia, the Aerobanquets RMX is an immersive, sensorial experience focussed on the perception of taste.
05/06/2018
OPENRNDR – Open source framework for creative coding for Kotlin
OPENRNDR is a tool to create tools. It is an open source framework for creative coding for Kotlin that simplifies writing real-time interactive software.
04/06/2018
Making Data Matter – Voxel printing for digital fabrication of data
Developed by the team at the MIT Media Lab’s Mediated Matter research group, the following research demonstrates multimaterial voxel-printing method that enables physical visualisation of volumetric data.
01/06/2018
Proteus – Analog digital display that allows for interacting with matter
Created by Maria Smigieska in collaboration with Pierre Cutellic, Proteus project is an analog digital display that allows for interacting with matter. It is an experiment on the modulation of ferrofluid patterns controlled by both magnetic field and robotic interface.
30/05/2018
Genesis of a Microbial Skin – Beehives designed for urban environments
Created by AnneMarie Maes, Genesis of a Microbial Skin is a mixed media installations and a research project exploring the idea of Intelligent Beehives with a focus on smart materials, in particular microbial skin. The project is about predominantly growing Intelligent Guerilla Beehives from scratch, with living materials – just as nature does.
25/05/2018
Mutiertes L-System – Physically grown L-System
Created by Lotta Stöver at HfK Bremen, Mutiertes L-System is the physically grown L-System-Algorithm. From a software origin, it migrates into the physical world. By mutating and developing architectural structures it adapts to its new spatial environment.
23/05/2018
Augenblick – Wearable that catches moments when we blink
Created by Manasse Pinsuwan and René Henrich, Augenblick explores and captures what we miss when we close our eyes thousands of times a day to blink. Developed at the Digital Media Bremen with support from Joachim Hofmann and Prof. Dennis P. Paul, Augenblick is a wearable device that records every single frame that is missed by its wearer.
11/05/2018
Sunny Side Up – Sunrise to sunset, the measures time and robotics
Developed by studio AATB, Sunny Side Up is an installation comprised of a robotic arm and a metal rod, proposing a contemporary version of the archaic typology of the sundial.
09/05/2018
Superception – Expanding human perception with personal projection mapping
Created by Shunichi Kasahara in collaboration with Satoru Higa, Takuto Usami, Shotaro Hirata and Tetsuya Konishi, “Superception” (Super + perception) is a research framework that uses computer technologies to intervene and transform human perception.
26/04/2018
Melting Memories – Drawing neural mechanisms of cognitive control
Created by Refik Anadol, “Melting Memories” is a series of digital artworks that explore materiality of remembering by offering new insights into the representational possibilities of EEG data collected on the neural mechanisms of cognitive control.
24/04/2018
Habitat of Recognition – Reading and writing of Earth’s landscapes
Created by Luiz Zanotello, Habitat of Recognition explores the material dimensions of digital technologies by examining the intra-active tensions between the distinction and convergence of matter.
21/03/2018
Learning To See – Making deep neural network predictions on live camera input
Latest in the series of experiments and explorations into neural networks by Memo Akten is a pre-trained deep neural network able to make predictions on live camera input – trying to make sense of what it sees, in context of what it’s seen before.
20/03/2018
Internet of Shrimps – Ironic and playful look at the IoT
Created by Ralph Kistler, ‘Internet of Shrimps’ examines in an ironic and playful way the industries´ promises for an enhanced experience in a completely interconnected smart home, often be acclaimed as the next big technological revolution: the Internet of Things.
07/03/2018
Spirotrope – Stirling Engine powered Spirograph animation
Created by Witaya Junma. ‘Spirotrope’ is a device developed from the hypothesis that an interactive artwork can be created from unrelated objects in a way such that each object is still visible in its essence, whether in its form or its function. The criteria is that the viewer must experience this by interacting with the artwork directly.
06/03/2018
Objective Realities – Becoming an object in a smart home
Created by Automato, ‘Objective Realities’ is an installation and performance that explores the idea of how does it feel to be an object in a smart home. It includes a series of VR experiences that change the perspective from a human point of view to the one of an object, inviting users to see and act in a virtual smart home with the capabilities and limitations of a specific object and listen to the invisible chatter that happens between networked things and the home.
19/02/2018
Scribble – Haptic interface for autonomous cars to ‘draw’ through traffic
Created by Felix Ros, ‘Scribble’ is a haptic interface designed for autonomous cars that lets the driver draw their way through traffic. They draw a path and the car will follow, not letting them drive but pilot the car, helping the car when in need. Scribble is powered by an Arduino DUE that is controlled over a serial connection by a GUI made in openFrameworks.
15/02/2018
Pour Reception – Water as a digital (material) interface
Created by Tore Knudsen, ‘Pour Reception’ is a playful radio that uses machine learning and tangible computing to challenge our cultural understanding of what an interface is and can be. Two glasses of water are turned into a digital material for the user to explore and appropriate.
07/02/2018
Cycling Wheel: The Orchestra – Reimagining Marcel’s bicycle wheel as a light+sound Instrument
Created by Taipei based Keith Lam, Seth Hon and Alex Lai, “Cycling Wheel” in an installation and performance that borrows the concept of Marcel’s Bicycle Wheel and re-imagines it as a dynamic and interactive performative instrument, transforming its mechanics into sound and light.
02/02/2018
Amygdala MKI –– Artificially intelligent prosthesis
Created by Marco Donnarumma in collaboration with Neurobotics Research Laboratory and Ana Rajcevic Studio, Amygdala MKI is a prototype for an artificially intelligent prosthesis with only aim is to learn a purification ritual of “skin-cutting” found in animistic tribes, so it trains on its own body, endlessly.
29/01/2018
Die With Me – The chat app for when you have less than 5% battery
Created by Dries Depoorter & David Surprenant and presented in collaboration with IDFA Doclab, Die With Me is a chat app available for iOS and Android that you can only use when you have less than 5% battery.
19/01/2018
Synthetic Pollenizer – Robotic interventions in the real-world ecological systems
Created by Michael Candy, “Synthetic Pollenizer” is a conceptual intervention in real-world ecological systems using artificial flowers. Inspired by natural pollenizers, these robotic replicas artificially pollinate bees, integrating into the reproductive cycle of local flora; an initiative into a cybernetic ecology.
15/01/2018
CarbonScape – Pollution soundscape by h0nh1m
Created by h0nh1m (Chris Cheung) CarbonScape is a kinetic data soundscape installation consisting of 18 tracks of granular synthesized sound samples. They are collected from the sound sources where carbon footprints are left – sound from the jet engine, steam from the factory or horn of the ship – all composed into a single soundscape.
12/01/2018
Lumen – Mixed reality storytelling device
Created by Arvind Sanjeev, Lumen is a mixed reality storytelling device that lets users explore AR/VR content without being confined to headsets or mobile devices.
10/01/2018
Dökk – Live media performance by fuse*
Dökk (‘darkness’ in Icelandic) is the new live-media performance by fuse* and the natural evolution of Ljós (‘light’). Dökk is about a journey throughout a sequence of digital landscapes where the perception of space and time is altered.
03/01/2018