Celebrating 50 years of art-tech experimentation, the SIGGRAPH 2023 Art Gallery theme “Time Capsules: Discovering the Undiscovered” consists of compelling digital and technologically mediated artworks that reflect the idea of time capsules. This session offers an excellent opportunity to engage with the artists featured in the SIGGRAPH 2023 Art Gallery, as they discuss their work, creative processes, and the influences that have shaped their artistic journeys.
Returning the Gaze: Robotic Installation for Milan Fashion Week
Industrial robots have long been used for manufacturing and research purposes around the world. More recently they have also been used in the fields of art, performance, dance, and interaction design, where they have served as a collaborator, autonomous agent, and, in some cases, as an extension of the artist. This project explores how a robotic extension could engage with the critical feminist issue of “the male gaze.” In doing so, it provides a brief theoretical context to the notion of the gaze in the context of visual culture and feminism. Finally, it illustrates the application of such a critical concept through the example of a robotic installation developed by the author for Milan Fashion Week in collaboration with Universal Robots. It engages with ways in which robots might extend the gaze through to discourses of resistance, whereby the gaze could be used to empower those who typically face discrimination.
Conservation of Shadows
Time is instantaneously crystallized in space to form glistening trails of you and other creatures within this interactive mixed reality installation, with rustling sounds and mingling shadows as shared physical connections between the visible and invisible realms of a bio-inspired computational ecosystem.
Talking with Neurons
“Talking with Neurons” is an interactive installation that enables people to remotely connect with live neural tissues that mimic our nervous system. Audiences activate lab-grown neural circuits called neural organoids in an off-site lab through their vocal cues. The neurons respond to this stimulation by exhibiting patterns of activity that are subsequently translated into audiovisual representations. Essentially, people talk to the neurons, which then promptly respond to the audience.
Chthulucene
Since the beginning of the British Industrial Revolution, Humans have become an important force affecting the evolution of the environment. Scientists call it the “Anthropocene”, which summarizes the geological changes from this period. But after realizing the role of mankind, we once again placed ourselves at the center of the world. In this project, we try to imagine a world where human beings are not the only important actors in the world. Diverse species are intertwined and react upon each other.
ReCollection
ReCollection is an interactive AI art installation that assembles synthetic collective visual memories based on language input, blurring the boundaries between remembrance and imagination through intelligent system design and experimental visualization.
Yoon Chung Han is an interactive media artist, award-winning interaction designer, researcher, and educator. Over the past fifteen years, she has created a wide range of interactive 2D/3D audiovisual art installations, including biologic art, data visualization and sonification, generative art, and audiovisual interface design. Her recent research focus was on multimodal interactions and data visualizations/sonification using biometric data and environmental data. Her works have been presented in many international exhibitions, conferences, and academic journals, such as ACM SIGGRAPH Art Gallery, Japan Media Arts Festival, London Science Museum, Media City Seoul, ZKM, NIME, ISEA, ACM Multimedia, ACM SIGCHI, IEEE Vis, Ulsan Art Museum, and Leonardo Journal. She had solo exhibitions at OCI Museum and Pier Contemporary Art Gallery in Korea. She has been invited to give lectures at various institutions and events, including Stanford University, Apple, SXSW, Technarte, Fulcrum Festival, Seoul National University IDCC, and KAIST. She was selected as an OCI Young Creative in 2018, and her work is part of the collection of the OCI Museum of Art. In 2023, she was appointed as a Creative Ambassador for the City of San José, California, and served as the Art Gallery Chair for ACM SIGGRAPH 2023, the general chair for the IEEE VIS Arts Program (VISAP), and the PacificVis Storytelling Contest. She earned her bachelor and her first Masters degree at the Seoul National University, and her second Masters degree at Design | Media Arts, University of California, Los Angeles. She holds Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Design at the San Jose State University.
Rebecca Ruige Xu, professor of computer art and animation at Syracuse University, focuses her research on the intersection of data visualization, experimental animation, and interactive media. She investigates how emerging technologies can transform creative practices, particularly in artistic data representation, visual music, and digital performance. Her projects have been exhibited globally at venues like ISEA, SIGGRAPH, and Ars Electronica. A co-founder of the ChinaVIS Arts Program, Xu also chaired the IEEE VIS Arts Program in 2023 and 2024 and currently chairs the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Committee.
Yoon Chung Han is an interactive media artist, award-winning interaction designer, researcher, and educator. Over the past fifteen years, she has created a wide range of interactive 2D/3D audiovisual art installations, including biologic art, data visualization and sonification, generative art, and audiovisual interface design. Her recent research focus was on multimodal interactions and data visualizations/sonification using biometric data and environmental data. Her works have been presented in many international exhibitions, conferences, and academic journals, such as ACM SIGGRAPH Art Gallery, Japan Media Arts Festival, London Science Museum, Media City Seoul, ZKM, NIME, ISEA, ACM Multimedia, ACM SIGCHI, IEEE Vis, Ulsan Art Museum, and Leonardo Journal. She had solo exhibitions at OCI Museum and Pier Contemporary Art Gallery in Korea. She has been invited to give lectures at various institutions and events, including Stanford University, Apple, SXSW, Technarte, Fulcrum Festival, Seoul National University IDCC, and KAIST. She was selected as an OCI Young Creative in 2018, and her work is part of the collection of the OCI Museum of Art. In 2023, she was appointed as a Creative Ambassador for the City of San José, California, and served as the Art Gallery Chair for ACM SIGGRAPH 2023, the general chair for the IEEE VIS Arts Program (VISAP), and the PacificVis Storytelling Contest. She earned her bachelor and her first Masters degree at the Seoul National University, and her second Masters degree at Design | Media Arts, University of California, Los Angeles. She holds Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Design at the San Jose State University.