“Fragments: The Shape of Things” by Alexandre Saunier, Marc-André Cossette

Title:

Fragments: The Shape of Things

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Performers:



• Alexandre Saunier
• Marc-André Cossette

Symposium:

• ISEA2022: 27th International Symposium on Electronic Art

Venue(s):

• CCCB: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona , Barcelona , Spain

Artist Statement:

Fragments: The Shape of Things is an audiovisual performance in which 2 human performers act live on Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life algorithms to generate and modulate a poetic immersive experience.

The 35 minutes performance is divided into acts that form an immersive journey from silence and darkness to an explosion of light, sound, and frenetic images. The piece uses the concept of fragments, small elements that are transformed and reconfigured, to explore technologically mediated human connections, perceptions, and memories. These fragments consist of sounds, videos, and photogrammetric objects that are scavenged from the news, created by the artists, or generated by algorithms. During the performance, those fragments are analyzed and modulated live by a set of Markov chains, Spiking Neural Networks, Machine Learning, optical flow, and other AI & A-Life techniques. In front of the audience, the artists orchestrate the action of those algorithms and guide the public into a journey that moves from darkness and absence into a growing torrent of sonic and visual stimuli.

The work explores the aesthetic experience emerging from the “human/ non-human” collaboration and how complex systems algorithms can generate new improvisational triggers for human performers. Furthermore, Fragments: The Shape of Things intends to explore how artificial intelligence technology transforms human experience by recombining and reconfiguring real-world data such as photos and videos into virtual telematic experiences.