Stitched Landscape

缝合的风景







刘唱·A4国际艺术家驻留项目展览
 

《缝合的风景》是艺术家刘唱在A4驻留项目中的作品。这部作品的概念基于艺术家八月份在成都麓湖驻留的感受以及对当下所处的周身环境的长期思考。在展览空间内,目之所及之处是覆盖了墙体的“自然及景观照片”,观者如同进入了一个复制粘贴式的微观世界。乍看之下,熟悉的风景、桥梁、建筑、花朵、草坪,细看却是一副迥异的面孔。

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《风景生成器 | Landscape Generator》

电脑生成图片,墙纸,机器学习算法,自定义软件

Computer Generated Images, Wallpaper, Algorithms in Machine Learning, Custom Software

这些图案其实是艺术家运用机器学习(Machine Learning)中的StyleGan算法,根据真实的景观图片和收集大量麓湖园区内的植物,生成出的不存在的风景。这些不存在的风景也许就存在于我们身边而不被察觉,也许这种方式就是我们正在制造的未来世界。熟悉感与迥异感正营造出一种“Uncanny Valley”的惊悚,这正是艺术家刘唱对当下快速发展中的城市建设的质疑,对侵占自然的质疑,以及对人工智能这一公共主题的讨论和参与。

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《声音肌理 | Texture of Sound》

交互装置

丝网印刷,电脑生成声音,自定义软件,导电颜料,手绘

尺寸不定

2020

鸣谢合作艺术家:解忧堂丝网工作室,音乐人王庹

Interactive Installation

Computer-generated sound, Screenprint, Custom Software, Conductive Ink, Drawing

Dimensions Variable

2020

Special Thanks:
  • HappyTown - Screenprint Studio,
  • Musician Alex Wang

在空间中,观者可以通过触摸墙面上珊瑚状的图形而获取一段声音的聆听。这九部声音也来自于刘唱对在麓湖地区声音采样的进一步改造,你听到的可能是鸟鸣,但又像人语,像是城市底噪,又如同骇浪翻滚。这些声音如风景之肌理杂糅于景观之中,时刻分裂着我们的神经,游走于自然与人造风景之间。而珊瑚状的图案组图正是人造风景的一个在地案例,麓湖地区如同一个新的珊瑚状水系,像自然湖泊一样连贯着这个园区,从无到有,从不存在到存在。

“20世纪末的机器已经使自然与人造之间的差异……以及适用于有机体和机器之间的许多其他区别都变得模糊。”——《A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century》by Donna Haraway

在驻留调研中,刘唱惊奇的发现麓湖的人造水系在地图上的珊瑚状呈现,这与自然界中相连的水系也有异曲同工之妙。

Catalog


Mark

Random Walker 




《随机漫步者-墨》是一部交互装置作品。这也是刘唱数字肖像系列“闪烁的存在”作品系列的一部分。 在这部交互装置中,当参与者进入空间,屏幕前的摄像头将捕捉到她/实时出现。 屏幕上显示的是一幅抽象肖像在这幅动态数字“油画”中,观众被流畅地描绘出来,彩色画笔几乎从画布上流出。 这个安装是由艺术家在Processing中编写的定制软件,使用
一种称为“随机漫步”的算法。 肖像画长期以来一直是一个非常重要的绘画流派,艺术家们不断表现出极大的热情。这部就像画家与机器一起工作,算法充当“画家的画笔”并使用数字笔触创建抽象肖像。 在制作传统肖像时,通常会要求拍摄者保持静止,这样在绘画的过程中就保持被动。观者可以看到自己的肖像逐渐出现在屏幕上,或者移动周围中断该过程。 时间是创意的另一个因素过程。 当观众离开装置时,他/她留下的痕迹在屏幕上的内容变得模糊,很快就会被下一个观看者取代。 整体短暂的过程是艺术家试图传达的,她描述了“时间的纹理”。 正如刘唱所说:“时光流逝,没有留下任何痕迹,但艺术作品却捕捉到了闪烁的存在
不知不觉。”
Random Walker-Dripping is a screen-based interactive installation, part of Liu Chang’s computational portraiture series, “Flickering Existence.” In the project's runtime, when a participant enters the space, the camera in front of the screen will capture her/his appearance in real-time. While on the screen, an abstract portrait of the viewer is depicted fluidly in this dynamic digital "oil painting," where the colorful brushes almost flow out of the canvas. This installation is operated by custom software programmed by artist Liu Chang in Processing, using an algorithm called Random Walker. Portraiture has long been a very important genre in painting; artists have continually demonstrated great passion for self-portraits and portraits of others. Random Walker - Dripping is like a painter who works with the machine, with the algorithm serving as the “painter’s brush” and using digital brushstrokes to create an abstract portrait. In the making of a traditional portrait, sitters are typically asked to be still, in this way remaining passive for the process of painting. However, in Random Walker-Dripping, audiences become co-creators of the portraits. They can see their portraits gradually emerge on the screen, or move around to interrupt the process. Time is another factor in the creative process. When the viewer leaves the installation, the marks that he/she leaves on the screen become blurry, soon to be replaced by the next viewer. The whole ephemeral process is what the artist is trying to convey, and she describes it as "the texture of time". As Liu Chang says: “The passage of time leaves no mark, but works of art capture the flickering existence unconsciously.”



Mark

Alone, Together





2018

{Interactive Installation, Computational Portraiture}

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Random Walker - Alone Together is an interactive video installation with double screens. Two screens stand back to back in the middle of the exhibition space (as shown). When a person stand in front of one screen, the image of the viewer standing at the other side of the installation will gradually appear, and vise versa. This unexpected way of encounter mimics the experience of self-inspection when a stranger surprisingly enters our gaze. It is also like a simple smile that we give to the passersby. Love Theater: Intimate examines “love” and “intimacy” under the epitome of the contemporary visual culture through images and installations, and guide the viewers to experience the boundary between people. In the exhibition, when viewers encounter with Random Walker - Alone Together, they also meet the other visitors by coincidence. This work seems to coincide with the uncertain and flickering existence in a relationship.

Exhibition:

“Love“, Today Art Museum, 2018.11.24 - 2019.2.24
The Flow of Nature






2017

{Computer Generated Visual, Digital Prints, Responsive E-Textile, Animation, Data Visualization}

The Flow of Nature is a one-year project about the twenty-four solar terms in traditional East Asian lunisolar calendars. During the creation, Liu Chang created a series of visualization of solar terms based on each term’s climate features, agricultural transitions, and cultural contexts. Artist Liu Chang uses Processing (an open-source programming tool) as her tool to create 24 different dynamic patterns. All the patterns are a looped animation moved forward by time-based weather natural phenomena. The project is in collaboration with screenprint studio Happytown Studio based in Chengdu. In this collaboration, Liu Chang explores various reactive paints to screen print the patterns on paper and fabrics. The prints will react based on different conditions, such as temperature, UV, water, etc., which also correspond to the idea of visualizing the procedure of time change and climate change. In the data visualization version, Chang applies historical weather data to the sketches to visualize the annual change in global climate.

Video Series:

春之节气:https://vimeo.com/768003306
夏之节气:https://vimeo.com/768003411
秋之节气:https://vimeo.com/768003222
冬之节气:https://vimeo.com/768003506


Nature and Algorithms

《自然与算法》是一个一百天的实践项目。在三个月的时间里,刘唱每天从谷歌地图上随机选取一张地理截图或下载一张风景照片,通过观察其地理纹理,在脑海中联想一个相近的算法,通过编程生成一张和自然界图像视觉美感接近的电脑生成图像。

“Nature and Algorithm” is a 100-day project. Every day for three months, Liu Chang randomly picked a screenshot of a geographic location or downloaded a landscape picture. She developed an algorithm by looking at the textures in the pictures, and with coding she generated images on the computer that visually imitate the original images. Two images from different worlds - Nature and Computer have similar visual effects. Juxtaposing them, Liu Chang sees the project both as a respect for the beauty of nature and technology, and as a question to the relationship between nature and AI.

两个图像来自不同的世界——自然界和电脑,但却具备相似的视觉效果。刘唱将它们并置在一起,既是对自然和科技所带来的两种不同美感的致敬,也是对自然和人工智能关系的提问。