Mesmerising AI-Generated Art Travels to Taipei and Presents Poetic AI Exhibition

Istanbul-based Ouchhh showcases AI art inspired by Taiwan’s unique landscape and culture.

Poetic AI: A Decade in Retrospective at Huashan 1914 Creative Park, Taipei City

TAIPEI, Taiwan — It seems like only yesterday that the question whether artificial intelligence (AI) will replace human first triggered anxiety. It’s no surprise that data-driven AI, contrary to human beings who are largely driven by emotions, ensures faster and more accurate decision-making. It came unexpected, however, when knowing that AI also taps into the field of art-making, which was once believed to be a uniquely human achievement.

Istanbul-based Ouchhh is a pioneer in creating works of art with algorithm as their brush, and data as their paint. Knowing that data is of no value if it fails to communicate the information, Ouchhh seeks to provide an alternative to looking at what data has to offer by transforming collection of values into an immersive experience that could directly impact its beholder.

The dynamics of the team is crucial in making this dream come true. The studio is consisted of engineers, academics, creative coders, designers, media artists, and many more. Having the advantage of a cross-disciplinary team allows Ouchhh to work at the intersection of art, science and technology.

Introduction to Poetic AI exhibition in Taipei

In 2018, the studio’s widely-acclaimed exhibition opened at L’Atelier des Lumières in Paris. Claimed to be the world’s largest AI exhibition, Poetic AI is said to have attracted more than 1 million visitors in nine months.

This summer, Poetic AI has traveled to Taiwan, and is now on view at the exhibition Poetic AI: A Decade in Retrospective in Huashan 1914 Creative Park.

To generate Poetic AI, Ouchhh fed the machine with millions of lines from articles and books related to light, physics, space and time, alongside ideas from celebrated scientists who are believed to have changed the course of history. This gave life to an emotional, poetic universe that surrounds its spectators with a surreal and extremely fluid reality in black and white.

Besides Poetic AI, Ouchhh has also brought along other works of art for its Taiwan exhibition. Arch of Light is a data-driven installation inspired by the glorious history of Italian art. The machine accumulated a myriad of painting and sculpture-making techniques from more than 320 Italian artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Raphael, Donatello, and Caravaggio. In total, more than 20,000 art works, including paintings, sculptures, and architectures, have been studied by the machine, with ‘data’ collected from as early as Byzantine Empire to contemporary times.

Visitors experience Ouchhh’s Arch of Light

After a deep-learning process, AI weaved Arch of Light, a mesmerising moving image that encapsulates the artistic endeavours spanning over 1,700 years. The installation embraces its spectators with the rendering of AI’s brushstrokes — made up of kaleidoscopic particles in various shapes and sizes —by using the world’s first 360-degree architectural mapping projection. Once the projection for Arch of Light comes to an end, Vincent Van Gogh follows suite — another enchanting data painting that was inspired by more than 500 works by the Dutch artist.

It’s worth noting that the exhibition spreads across a group of warehouses at the Red Brick Lane inside the Huashan 1914 Creative Park. The fact that people need to go from one warehouse to another in order to complete their visit also changes the dynamics of the overall experience.

As for the exhibition highlights, Ouchhh created three location-based installations inspired by Taiwan: Ocean Data_The Breeze of Taiwan, Say Superstring, and Mother Earth.

Taiwan is an island; it was formerly known as Formosa (derived from the Portugese Ilha Formosa, literally “beautiful island”) in the West. Inspired by Taiwan’s oceanic environment, Ouchhh created Ocean Data_The Breeze of Taiwan, a data tapestry that evokes the fluid movement of the island’s surrounding waters, including the Pacific Ocean, Bachi Channel, Taiwan Strait, and Kuroshio Current.

Capable of evoking the emotions of the sea, Ocean Data_The Breeze of Taiwan seeks to raise people’ awareness of their natural environment, encouraging them to reconnect with the ocean. When standing in front of this algorithmic seascape, I see data values mutating into curves, then into flowing body of water. The water — both rendered and in raw data — is in a constant state of flux, stressing the unpredictable quality of what’s considered to be one of the most mysterious elements on planet Earth.

Say Superstrings by Ouchhh

My favourite work on display is Say Superstrings — a multi-sensorial installation that bears fruit of a collaboration between Ouchhh, the Taipei Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra (TPSO), and Mediasphere Communications Ltd.

In simple terms, Say Superstrings presents a visualisation of the musicians’ brainwaves when performing three classic folk songs from Taiwan, namely “Longing for Spring Breezes” (望春風), “Drip, Drip, Drop” (丟丟銅仔), and “Rainy Night Flower” (雨夜花). The algorithmic brushstroke, which details the musicians’ emotions and neurotic reactions when playing, is accompanied by the recording of the performance.

Say Superstrings is, in my view, the most soothing data painting to look at, mostly due to its familiar melody playing in the background. When sitting in front of Say Superstrings, I feel as if my presence has become part of this nostalgic resonance reverberating around the room, dissolving into this collective voice written with musical notes.

Mother Earth by Ouchhh

The exhibition ends with Mother Earth, another location-based installation derived from Taiwan’s environmental statistics, including air quality, carbon dioxide emission, and city traffic.

The painting is projected onto an organically shaped pedestal that simulates the terraced field used for tea production. On one side of the room, a selection of loose tea leaves are beautifully laid out, each accompanied by a brief description. According to exhibition organiser, tasting events are held from time to time for visitors to take a sip of the tea while immersed in Mother Earth. This, once again, urges the spectators to reconnect with nature, as well as the little things in life we take for granted.

A view of the Red Brick Lane inside Huashan 1914 Creative Park, Taipei city

Though the creative process of data painting is no mystery, it’s still difficult to imagine how our surroundings in values and figures could inspire beautiful works of art.

We’re certainly in the midst of “a golden age of progress in artificial intelligence”, as Kevin Roose has pointed out in the New York Times. In particular, this hybrid universe of art and technology might prompt artists to contemplate whether this is what the future of the art world will look like. Will AI art ever replace man-made art? We don’t know. But we must not forget that it was men — such is the case for Ouchhh — who first fed data to the machine. In other words, AI’s creative endeavour has always been initiated by men.

The fact that AI art is capable of offering an alternative aesthetic is undeniable. Its experiential quality can perhaps shed some light on the essence of art, and the idea that art is less about the work itself, but the kind of emotion and experience it brings about to its viewers.

Poetic AI: A Decade in Retrospective is on view at Huashan 1914 Creative Park and runs through through September 18, 2022.