Artists & Algorists
Present Plus launches new platform for interactive digital art
16 OCTOBER 2013, AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
Summary
Innovations studio Present Plus present Artists & Algorists, a platform that aims to showcase the synthesis of art and computer science. The studio has developed a platform for digital interactive art, shining a light on a growing breed of artists that have adopted design and code to express themselves. In a permanent exhibition at art'otel Amsterdam, A&A also exhibits this new genre to non-digital natives, creating a truly immersive offline experience with a selection of their curated works.Artists and Algorists
Present Plus proudly present Artists & Algorists, a platform shining a light on a new breed of artist that has adopted design and code to express themselves. As algorithms are the building blocks of our digital society, they help us calculate, search, order and process the information around us. Today, however, we are seeing the creative potential of code emerging; a new hybrid of artist and coder has been born.
Artists & Algorists is a platform that aims to showcase this fusion of art and computer science. Through this online platform we want to support those 'artists and algorists' who are pushing digital tools to a new level, creating different kinds of algorithms that enables the viewer to interact and play a part in the formation of the art itself.
With A&A, Present Plus hopes to open up a platform to what was previously called computer arts, an art formed that started as early as 1956, but today is still struggling to be recognised as art. Today algorithms are used to help calculate, search, determine, order and process. In fact algorithms have become probably more widespread then pencils and are most definitely the new oil. This project however is a showcase of a different form of algorithm, one that can be used to enable you to play a part in the formation and creation of art. An experience that is far more a dialogue than the traditional exhibition's monologue discourse.
A&A at art'otel Amsterdam
Present Plus has also brought the art they've curated for the online A&A platform into the physical world. At art'otel Amsterdam, A&A is exhibiting this genre of art to those who are not digital natives, creating a truly immersive offline experience. The installation, a silicon curtain of 12m long by 6m high covers the entrance-area of the hotel, and crucial areas alongside the bar, restaurant and gallery, covering a total of two floors. Twenty six sensors within the space pick up the movements of the viewers, allowing them to change and interact with the work as they move through the space.
The display system, developed through months of hard work by the innovations studio, allows for a series of work to be shown in a way that is removed from the typical screen format but still keeps it's digital and interactive origins. The featured work is a combination of art specifically commissioned for A&A and pieces that were adapted for the exhibition and grand-scale interaction. These include works by designers Hannes Hummel, Malika Favre, duos Kai & Sunny and Kim & Greg , film maker Menno Otten, the Jullien Brothers and Patrick Smith. Alongside this Present Plus has created a wide array of visuals using WebGL and HTML5, which provide a well-balanced experience that links art and hospitality. These works have been specifically curated to take into account the multiple uses of the space as a restaurant, bar and lobby with the work changing and reflecting the different uses at different time of the day.
art'otel Amsterdam, who made this ambitious installation possible, is a newly opened addition to the art'otel group. As in it's other hotels across Europe, it allows guests to experience not only luxury accomodation in the centre of beautiful Amsterdam but also contempary art, live studios and cutting edge architecture. art'otel Amsterdam aims to create a fusion between art and life, an idea very much in fotting with the ambitions of Artists & Algorists.
Seeing these pieces on the scale that the installation allows is at times completely enveloping, letting the audience get lost in the moving forms, colours and endless possibilities that lie within the work's interactions. The public is able to both play with the work but also be a part in the formation of it as it responds and changes with each new visitor creating an unparalleled sense of interactivity and ownership.
Credits:
Developed by Present Plus
Made Possible by art'otel Amsterdam
A huge thanks to all the contributing artists:
Malika Favre, Patrick Smith, The Jullien Brothers, Hannes Hummel, Kim Demåne, Greg Solenström, Kai & Sunny, Menno Otten, Aleksandar Rodic and Joep van Lieshout.
Present Plus
Damian Bradfield, Jean Joskin, Sam van 't Oever, Jeroen van Doorn, Tjalling Valdés Olmos
Anuschka Tjin-A.Cheong, Eyal Shoan, Thijs Koster, Esther Duller
Special thanks to:
Nalden, Joppe Rog, Thijs Remie, Giel Cobben, Roy Kaats, Joost van Ree, Samuel de Goede, Judith Galama, Joris van der Plaetsen, Vanity Wezer, Stijn Eversdijk, Gemma Carr, Boris Ivesha, Esther Duller and Yasemin Oruc.
Relevant links
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About Present Plus
Present Plus is an innovations studio with a passion for design, software, culture, and story-telling. We co-founded, built & designed WeTransfer. Started Kuvva and believe in wonders. We also enjoy collaborating with brands, marketing products and celebrate creativity in our Gallery.