Archinect - News

In an Ontario plaza, interactive pavements play music ‘as if by magic’

2024-02-28T13:28:00-05:00

Montreal-based studio Daily tous les jours has completed a public space design in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Titled 'River Lines,' the project saw the creation of an interactive stage in an urban plaza for big impromptu musical ensembles.

Video credit: doublespace photography

Part of the studio’s wider Musical Pavement series, the interactive wave-patterned pavement is embedded with 62 sensing light rings that “get people moving through musical collaboration exercises.” The infrastructure is formed of twelve in-house tailored audio tiles that have no visible hardware and blend with the wider pavement pattern, meaning “music emanates from the ground as if by magic.”

Image credit: doublespace photography

Located on the site of a 19th-century foundry, the artwork is “a response to the historical nature of the site” and “an exemplar of how investment in the public realm is essential to reimagine and activate places and encourage collective interacti...

Refik Anadol creates ‘world first’ AI model trained on data from nature instead of humans

2024-01-15T11:35:00-05:00

Refik Anadol Studio has announced the creation of the “world’s first open-source generative AI model dedicated to nature.” Titled 'Large Nature Model,' the model is trained “solely on nature’s inherent intelligence” as opposed to the conventional approach to AI large language model training, which consists of human-generated data such as art and text.

To train the model, Anadol’s studio used open-access information from institutions including the Smithsonian Institution and London’s Natural History Museum alongside various other universities, museums, foundations, government entities, and libraries. The studio is also visiting 16 rainforest locations around the world, deploying data collection technologies such as LiDAR, photogrammetry, and the capturing of ambisonic audio and high-resolution visuals of diverse ecosystems to further train the model.

“Our vision for the Large Nature Model goes beyond being a repository or a creative research initiative,” said Refik Anadol about the m...

Iconic Parisian cathedral transformed into ‘sensory nighttime exploration’ by multimedia company Moment Factory

2023-10-26T12:53:00-04:00

Montreal-based Moment Factory has completed an immersive multimedia experience inside the iconic Dôme des Invalides in Paris. The project, titled 'AURA Invalides,' consists of a 50-minute experience combining video mapping, lighting, special effects, orchestral music, and sound design to celebrate the building’s architectural and historical heritage.

Image credit: Moment Factory

Conceived in 2019 by cultural operator Cultival in collaboration with Musée de l’Armée, the project seeks to create a “sensory nighttime exploration” in which visitors wander through the Dôme des Invalides and its six chapels guided by light. The experience is divided into three acts, each portraying a distinct facet of the site: “its construction, the memories it harbors, and its power to inspire one and all.”

Image credit: Moment Factory

To project an experience onto the main dome, which measures 295 feet high and 98 feet at its smallest diameter, the t...

A solar-powered media façade that ‘consumes only as much energy as it produces’

2023-07-06T11:32:00-04:00

A team comprising iart, AMDL CIRCLE, and Michele De Lucchi has created a ‘zero-energy media façade’ for the Novartis Pavilion in Basel, Switzerland. Combining PV panels and LEDs, the façade is described by the team as “illustrating the potential of organic photovoltaics in architecture.”

Photo credit: iart – studio for media architectures

Photo credit: Laurids Jensen

The façade features 10,000 diamond-shaped solar modules with LED lights embedded within that shine outwards as well as inwards onto the pavilion’s metal shell. The reflection of the metal shell creates a shimmer through the semi-transparent solar modules, resulting in a multi-layered membrane for displaying content.

Photo credit: iart – studio for media architectures

The display only consumes as much electrical energy as it is capable of producing through carbon-based organic solar modules that were custom-made for the project. The modules were ideal for the pavilion’s dom...

Refik Anadol repurposes his AI data sculpture 'Machine Hallucinations' for 2023 Grammy Awards stage

2023-02-07T18:54:00-05:00

Istanbul-born media artist and design innovator Refik Anadol has quickly become a household name with his mind-bending, data-driven art. This year, Anadol continues to push what's possible during his visual backdrop debut at the 65th annual Grammy Awards.

"The collaboration with the Recording Academy started almost six months ago with an exciting call from the designers who are in charge of the stage design and the whole flow of the ceremony," Anadol shared with Archinect.

Anadol's work can be seen in the background illuminating the space during the award's premier ceremony speech by the Recording Academy's CEO Harvey Mason Jr. Video courtesy of Recording Academy/Grammys.

Along with the event's lead production designer Julio Himede, the art direction team, and electronic graphics expert Hugh Grew, Anadol's distinct data-generated paintings from his AI artwork and NFT collections, Machine Hallucinations — Nature Dreams and Machine Hallucinations: Space Metaverse, could be spotted ...

For Unreal Engine-savvy architects, a multimedia company offers the opportunity to collaborate with big-name brands and promoters

2022-12-07T13:23:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Senior Associate of Design for the Obama Presidential Center, we are using our Job Highlights series this week to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for an Unreal Engine Rendering Artist at PHNTM.

The position, situated in Los Angeles, calls for an individual with a degree in architecture or game and entertainment design with at least one year’s experience in Unreal Engine. Responsibilities will include developing "detailed 3D scenes and cinematic photo realistic images and videos," as well as "optimize assets for virtual tours" of PHNTM’s experiential projects.

Related on Archinect: Epic Games unleashes Unreal with the Academy

Why the role interests us

The PHNTM role’s emphasis on proficiency in Unreal Engine marks the latest example of an architectural career’s intersection with immersive multimedia and gaming. Last month, the topic was also the focus on a MoMA exhibition showcasing its own video game collection. Last year, meanwh...

Refik Anadol unveils ‘first-of-its-kind’ AI artwork NFTs

2021-09-17T11:37:00-04:00

Refik Anadol Studio has announced details of their Machine Hallucinations -Space: Metaverse NFT Collection, which is set to be auctioned by Sotheby’s Hong Kong. To create the NFTs, Anadol has minted a machine’s memories and dreams of space onto the blockchain, manifested through eight unique artworks. The works are set to become the first-ever examples of immersive digital experiences being converted into NFTs.

Image copyright: Refik Anadol Studio for Sotheby’s

The eight works consist of an immersive physical experience, three infinitely generative data paintings, three unique AI data paintings, and a one-of-a-kind robotically-produced AI data sculpture. Following their online auction from Sotheby’s Hong Kong from September 30th to October 4th, the works will be exhibited at the Digital Art Fair in Hong Kong from October 1st to 17th, 2021.

Image copyright: Refik Anadol Studio for Sotheby’s

“Since 2015, I have been speculating the relationship between the human mind, architecture, ...

Two giant digital art installations open in Times Square

2021-07-19T13:15:00-04:00

Two immersive, site-specific media art installations evoking natural water landscapes, produced by a'strict, will be displayed at Times Square during New York's hottest summer months. From July 16 to Aug. 2, the group's gigantic whale and waterfall will appear before the eyes of millions in the U.S. for the first time.

The Korean media artist group a'strict has previously made a splash with its recent WAVE project outside of a mall in Seoul's Gangnam District. The aquatic digital 3D sculpture bears more than a passing resemblance to a piece by Olafur Eliasson that was installed in 2008.

A group called Silvercast is hosting the installation on its 30,000-square-foot Big Kahuna digital billboard. The whale will appear in 60-second intervals every half hour from 12pm until midnight.

The Korea Times has more on the summery new artworks here.

A in #TimesSquare. Check out this digital art work taking over a 30,000 sq. ft. @SILVERCASTMedia screen in the heart of Times Square. Launched today and runs through July 26 every half hour. Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/aKnpd7TTxt
— Times Square (@TimesSquareNYC) July 16, 2021

Architecture and space subverted through the pratfalls of Buster Keaton

2019-03-28T19:07:00-04:00

Keaton’s comedy derives largely from the positioning —and constant, unexpected repositioning— of his body in space, and in architectural space particularly. Unlike other slapstick performers who relished in the close-up and detailed attention to the protagonist, Keaton frequently directed the camera to film with a wide far-shot that could contain the whole of a building’s facade or urban span within the frame.

While few movies can be truly considered architectural, and even fewer can meaningfully activate the filmic environment through its protagonists, the silent movie era saw no better patron of the spatial arts than Buster Keaton, the creative force Roger Ebert once described as "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."

Gifs of his battles with building façades, staircases and other architectural elements have popped up on the internet with significant fervor, and members of the architecture community have been quick to notice. An article by Will Jennings highlights the brilliance with which Keaton interacted with architecture.

Clip from One Week. Buster Keaton, 1920.

"In One Week (1920)," Jennings writes, "Keaton and his new wife are given a self-build house and plot of land by his uncle: “To give this house a snappy appearance put it up according to the numbers on the boxes”, state the Portable House Co. instructions. Unbeknown to the couple, a former suitor of the b...

Walt Disney Concert Hall lights up over the weekend with projections by Refik Anadol

2018-10-03T13:42:00-04:00

Celebrating its 100th anniversary, the LA Phil has put on quite the birthday extravaganza, kicking off over the weekend with performances by Chris Martin and members of the Doors; a special CicLAvia bike ride that stretched from Downtown's Disney Concert Hall to the Hollywood Bowl; and a series of vibrant projections from Refik Anadol.

Announced back in September, the local media artist used 45 terabytes of data derived from the Phil's archive to create a series of patterns then projected on the exterior of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Called 'WDCH Dreams', the media installation lit up the iconic Frank Gehry building beginning Thursday night, delighting passersby, and will continue to do so every evening through October 6th.

Refik Anadol to cover Walt Disney Concert Hall with vivid data projections

2018-09-13T15:42:00-04:00

One of the most recognizable buildings in Downtown Los Angeles—the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall—will be used as a canvas later this month. To celebrate the start of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new season, colorful patterns will be projected onto the metallic surface of the wavy concert hall for a little more than a week, courtesy of artist Refik Anadol.

For the LA Philharmonic projection series, called WDCH Dreams, internationally renowned media artist Refik Anadol dug deep in the digital orchestra archives—nearly 45 terabytes of data—and applied Google Arts and Culture's machine intelligence to it, which parsed the files into millions of data points that were then re-categorized and, with the help of deep neural networks, made new connections between LA Phil's "memories." According to Anadol, this process awakes the metaphorical "consciousness" of Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the result is a "radical visualization of the organization’s first century and an exploration of synergies between art and technology, and architecture and institutional memory."

WDCH Dreams, renderings by Refik Anadol Studio

To visualize the result of this process, Anadol will be using 42 large scale projectors, with 50K visual resolution, 8-channel sound, and 1.2M luminance in total, which should create quite a spectacular display on the stainless-steel fac...

Refik Anadol's new "data sculpture" unveiled at the SOM-designed 350 Mission in San Francisco

2015-12-07T20:12:00-05:00

The first permanent publicly-viewable artwork by Refik Anadol, a media artist known for his immersive, site-specific light installations, was recently unveiled in San Francisco. Virtual Depictions: San Francisco, a series of "data sculptures" based on a publicly-available dataset, occupies a 40 ft. screen in the lobby of 350 Mission and involved collaborations with the building's architects, Skidmore, Owings and Merill, and developer, Kilroy Realty.

"The ambient qualities of urban ecologies, as we as civilizations create them in specific geographic locations, are coming to the forefront of cultural production," Anadol told Archinect. "With the advent of digital media and environmental consciousness we now are able, more so than any at other point in human history, to access the formal qualities of the ambient environment in terms of the built, social and natural environments."

"Through sensors, databases, and visualization we can collect information on the real-time dynamics of citie...