Challenge #6 & Challenge #7


Living Surfaces

Problem Statement:

Living Surfaces examines how data-driven models and simulations reshape our understanding of climate collapse. It questions how environmental changes and computational realities intersect and challenges the adaptation of AI and machine learning to coexist with nature, urging a reimagining of these technologies to harmonize with the natural world.

Challenge description:

“Living Surfaces” examines how our environment is increasingly viewed as data, rendered in real-time models and simulations. These computational realities, shaped by rules of computation and displayed on screens, have transformed our understanding of climate collapse. The project questions how environmental changes and digital representations intersect across networks, challenging the adaptation of AI and machine learning to coexist symbiotically with nature.

Over the past two centuries, Earth’s surface has been increasingly perceived as an environment shaped by images, connecting the material world with synthetic visual representations. “Living Surfaces” advocates for a shift from purely data-driven models to systems that embrace ecological complexity and sustainability. The challenge is to create technologies that respect and enhance the natural world, rather than overpower it.

Artists are invited to critically engage with the impact of these digital representations and explore technological innovations that align with nature’s rhythms, fostering a balanced and sustainable coexistence. This perspective encourages a transition towards the symbiocene, where technology and nature coexist harmoniously, enhancing rather than harming the environment.

Residency characteristics:

Beta is a new festival in Ireland that explores the intersection of art and technology, making complex themes accessible to the public and reflecting on Ireland’s role as a global tech hub. The festival celebrates Ireland’s research and artistic communities through creativity, debate, and experimentation.

As part of Beta Festival, a residency will run from September 2024 to May 2025, inviting artists to explore digital representations and develop technological advancements that harmonise with nature.

The residency will involve workshops, activities, and field research, with travel expenses covered. Artists must produce a prototype or artwork for the Studiotopia programme, to be presented at Beta Festival in November 2025. The residency will be hybrid, with at least one month of in-person attendance, plus online engagement. Artists will collaborate with a Local Challenge Committee (LCC) and receive support, including funding, access to technology, and curatorial assistance.

Artists are expected to create a public-facing output, facilitate community workshops, spend a minimum of one month in Ireland, and participate in Beta Festival and related educational activities. Further opportunities may be explored as the residency progresses.

Established scientist bio:

Barry O'Sullivan

Professor O’Sullivan is a full professor at University College Cork’s School of Computer Science & IT. He specialises in AI, data ethics, and public policy, contributing to global diplomacy in AI and defence. He is founding director of the Insight SFI Research Centre and served as Vice Chair of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on AI. He is a member of Ireland’s AI Advisory Council, represents the European Union at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence and is a Fellow of the European AI Association and the Association for the Advancement of AI.

Selected Emerging Artist bio:

Hung Lu Chan

Hung Lu Chan (Michael) is a Taiwanese artist and social designer based in the Netherlands. He holds a master’s degree in Social Design from Design Academy Eindhoven and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from Taiwan. His creative practice lies at the intersection of interdisciplinary research, interactive installations, and participatory workshops. He is interested in exploring the diverse human imagination of the unknown, particularly looking into how humans imagine aliens throughout centuries from within. His multi-disciplinary work spans across art, neuroscience, spirituality, and AI neural networks. In his recent research project, he especially explores aliens as an internal phenomenon through a mix of guided meditation, multi-sensory neurofeedback, and embodiment. Aiming to foster more diverse and inclusive perceptions of the future, he positions his work as an imagination catalyst, re-exploring the unknown to challenge established norms and uncover humanity’s diverse imaginations. Ultimately, his work seeks to blur the borders between facts and fiction, science and fantasy, and others and selves.

Selected Emerging Artist bio:

Cezar Mocan

Cezar Mocan is a Lisbon-based artist and computer programmer interested in the interplay between technology and the natural landscape. Using narrative generative systems—animated videos of infinite duration, real-time simulations built in game engines or other software—he creates worlds that recontextualize aspects of digital culture we take for granted, often in absurd ways, while investigating the power structures which mediate our relationship with technology. Drawing on media archaeology and art history, his research process traces the origins of our current thought patterns around (technological) progress. Some of his past works have been exhibited at Office Impart (Berlin), Onassis ONX Studio (New York), Panke Gallery (Berlin), Yale University (New Haven), Currents New Media (Santa Fe), Inter/Access (Toronto), Romanian Design Week (Bucharest) and The Wrong Biennale. His real-time simulation work, Arcadia Inc. was recognized as a 2021 winner of the Lumen Prize in Art and Technology. Cezar holds a B.S. in Computer Science (2016) from Yale University and an M.P.S. in Interactive Telecommunications (2021) from New York University, where he also served as a research resident and adjunct professor.

LCC:

Biography already posted above.

Nora O'Murchú

is a curator and researcher. In her curatorial work, she explores online culture and the implications of technological developments. Her multidisciplinary practice embraces narratives, and fictions, resulting in objects, exhibitions, and interventions. Her research aims to help people understand how complex socio-technical systems are imagined, built, and used. She has curated exhibitions and events for institutions including Akademie Schloss Solitude, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Rua Red, and The Science Gallery. She has held positions as a research associate for the Interaction Design Centre at the University of Limerick, the Interaction Research Studio at Goldsmiths, and CRUMB at the University of Sunderland. Her research on the impact of technology on curating has been published at Goldsmiths Press, Taylor & Francis, and Springer. She currently serves as a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick in Ireland, and is the Artistic Director of transmediale in Berlin.

Residency hosting institution

Beta Festival


Country

Ireland


Keywords

Artificial intelligence, Machine learning, Symbiotic living, Technological integration, Sustainable coexistence, Remote sensing, Climate change, Real time


Related innovation areas

Smart Cities, AI, Sensors, Smart tech


Established scientist

Barry O’Sullivan


Jury day

November 20, 2024


Budget:

4.000 Euros fee/gross (Production budget & Travelling costs covered by Beta Festival / The Digital Hub, to be detailed in selection process)


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