180 The Strand
12 October 2022 – 4 December 2022
Universal Everything’s biggest UK solo show to date is taking place at 180 Studios, presenting a collection of futuristic and charismatic moving digital lifeforms.
If the exhibition could be described in keywords, I would use bold, fun, colourful and sassy. Needless to say, these words fall short to illustrate the real experience of this fascinating show. Sheffield-based media art and design collective Universal Everything brings to the public 14 digital projects ‘living’ in a series of habitats designed by Ab Rogers Architects. Lifeforms exhibition incorporates generative video, sound, architecture, projection and interaction to create evolving characters. These soulful digital characters draw from the history of visual culture – from futurists’ attempt to depict the body in motion to Eadweard Muybridge’s sequential 19th-century film experiences.
Universal Everything uses cutting-edge digital technology to create ‘lifeforms’ and explore a wide range of human behaviours and the natural world. Looping videos in the show include captivating parades of ‘future humans’, microorganisms, and plants. Moreover, the exhibition embraces the power of emerging technologies, from high-end visual effects and real-time game engines to physics simulations and computer vision.
Lifeforms premiers three new works at 180 Studios: Primordial, Maison Autonome, and Into the Sun. Primordial is a generative artwork made from code that depicts cellular microscopic organisms moving and growing to the pulse of sound. A public favourite includes the fantasy fashion show of Maison Autonome, where mesmerizing characters endlessly strut towards the viewer in a random combination of form, size, and material, each with their own walk and personality. It takes the language of fashion and makes it oversized, fluid, and space-age, presenting a positivist future. Into the Sun is an interactive installation, a natural landscape that will only come to life when the viewer interacts and moves in front of it.
The unique lifeforms in the show are made with generative software, meaning they are unpredictable as they mirror and shift with time and the public’s interaction, hence no visitor will see the same show twice. Creative director of Lifeforms, Matt Pyke, says that generative technology is “compelling and surprising because it’s always fresh. It’s off doing its own thing and evolves beyond what we create in the studio”. Universal Everything designs its own computational systems to grow digital characters or abstract lifeforms with personalities that emerge by themselves.
In an interview, Pyke said: “As the designer or artist, we define the visual parameters, the range of colours or material or forms. And then within those rules, infinite iterations can be created. It’s our way of creating the boundaries of the playground. And then when you press “go”, it generates these forms that interest me and surprise me. It’s like letting something out into the wild”.
This mesmerizing show prompts reflection about the potential and the role that CGI, digital and generative art will have in the future of art. At the end of the day, ‘Lifeforms’ is an interactive and multisensory show that will delight and entrance all audiences, from children to art professionals.
Universal Everything——「生命形式」：歡樂的互動體驗
180 The Strand
2022 年 10 月 12 日 – 2022 年 12 月 4 日
Universal Everything 迄今為止最大的英國個展Lifeforms「生命形式」正在 180 Studios 舉行，展示了一系列充滿未來感和魅力的游動數字生物體。
如果展覽可以用幾個關鍵詞來描述，我會用大膽、有趣、多彩和有個性。當然，這些詞不足以說明這迷人展覽的真實體驗。位於謝菲爾德的媒體藝術和設計集體 Universal Everything 為公眾帶來了 14 個生活在 Ab Rogers Architects 設計的一系列棲息地中的數字項目。 該展覽結合了生成視頻、聲音、建築、投影和互動來創造不斷變化的角色。這些多情的數字角色取材於視覺文化的歷史——從未來主義者試圖描繪運動中的身體到 Eadweard Muybridge 19 世紀的連續電影體驗。
Universal Everything 使用尖端的數字技術來創造這些“生物”並探索廣泛的人類行為和自然世界。展覽中循環播放的視頻包括迷人的“未來人類” 遊行、微生物和植物。此外，它還展示了新興技術的力量，從高端特效效果和實時遊戲引擎到物理模擬和圖像分割。
Lifeforms在 180 Studios 首映了三部新作品：Primordial、Maison Autonome 和 Into the Sun。 Primordial 是由代碼製成的生成藝術品，描繪了細胞微生物隨著聲音的脈搏移動和生長。公眾最喜愛的作品之一也包括 Maison Autonome 的奇幻時裝秀，令人著迷的角色在形式、大小和材料的隨機組合中無休止地走向觀眾，而每個都帶有自己的步態和個性。它採用時尚語言，使其超大、流動和太空時代，呈現出一個實證主義的未來。其次， Into the Sun 是一個互動的自然景觀，只有當觀眾在它面前互動並移動時，它才會變得栩栩欲活。
作品中獨特的“生物”是用生成軟件製作的，這意味著它們是不可預測的，因為它們會隨著時間和公眾的互動而產生反應和變化，因此每一次的觀看都是獨特的、不會重複的。 展覽的創意總監馬特·派克說生成技術“令人信服且令人驚訝，因為它總是新鮮的。它會去做自己的事情，並且超越了我們在工作室中創造的東西。” Universal Everything 設計了自己的計算系統，以培養具有自身個性的數字角色與抽象生物。
在一次採訪中派克說：“作為設計師或藝術家，我們定義視覺參數、顏色或材料或形式的範圍。然後在這些規則中，可以創建無限迭代。這是我們創場景界限的方式。然後當你按下go時，它會生成這些讓我感興趣並讓我驚訝的形狀。這就像將野獸放生”。
Lifeforms「生命形式」這個互動展覽促使人們思考 CGI、數字和生成藝術在藝術未來中的潛力和角色，無論是兒童還是專業人士，都能享受其中。
Edited 编辑 x Victoria Huang 黄婧
