Silicon Serenade

Virtual reality, host computer installation, buoyant ball installation, spliced screens
450 x 100 cm | 5 min | 2024

The beach is covered with silicon, an essential component of the semiconductor chips used in various digital technology products. Through a series of processes, circuits are etched onto wafers and then cut into many fingernail-sized chips. These powerful chips are what make artificial intelligence possible. This work traces the origin of the materiality behind these AI chips through their manufacturing process, presented through a kind of digital texture.

This work uses a game engine to create a virtual beach scene. As the waves fluctuate, several virtual screens on the sea surface play live videos. These videos include cello performances by underwater performers and footage of a laboratory at the Hsinchu Industrial Technology Research Institute, showcasing the CoWoS chip manufacturing process which is so crucial for AI technology. The music in the work adopts an electronic style and was actually generated by AI. Using keywords extracted from the process involving the beach, silicon, wafers, and AI, the AI generated the lyrics, melody, and performance, and even sang the song. This AI-generated music is intertwined with the cello music, laboratory footage, and virtual beach.

The exhibition’s installation consists of a VR headset, a floating sphere suspended in space, and an electronic screen. The floating sphere gently sways in the space, and the trajectory of its movement is directly linked to the images in the VR headset. This motion, generated by the dynamics of the floating sphere, is projected onto the electronic screen, presenting a first-person perspective of the sphere and its journey from physical to digital.

MACHINE LOVE: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art at The Mori Art Museum

With the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and the integration of virtual and real worlds, the latest cutting-edge technologies have quickly penetrated our daily lives. This tendency has become especially apparent since the COVID-19 pandemic, when many human activities shifted towards virtual space. Looking back, the progress of art and technology has run parallel to each other throughout the course of history, a phenomenon that is especially evident in the field of computer art and video art. While recent innovations in video game engines and AI offer unprecedented possibilities for artists, the advent of generative AI also has raised significant concerns. Such developments are now attracting considerable attention in various fields and industries, including the contemporary art world.

MACHINE LOVE introduces 48 works of contemporary art that employs game engines, AI, and virtual reality (VR), including a number that utilize generative AI – a technology with the capacity to surpass human creativity. These works explore new aesthetics and image-making through the use of various data sets that exist in digital space. Some works examine how online avatars and characters can nurture new types of gender and racial identities that lie beyond the reach of social norms, while others demonstrate the visualization of hyper realistic landscapes. With artists adopting these methods, at the core of their creative practices are universal views of life and death, ethics, the environmental crisis facing contemporary society, historical interpretation, and diversity.

This exhibition presents artworks created in collaboration between "machines" and artists, offering immersive spatial experiences through large-scale installations. It serves as a platform to reflect on the relationship between humans and technology, exploring emotions such as love, empathy, joy, fear, and anxiety. Visitors are invited to engage in a space where reality and virtuality converge, contemplating new ways to navigate an uncertain future.