2022
Streaming Stillness 虚极静笃
Inspired by the concept of Yugong, which represents the earliest geographical imagination and contemplation in China, Streaming Stillness reshapes the Chinese topography using artificial intelligence to map in a way that creates a fresh geographic origin for modern Chinese civilization.
Over the past year, starting from the Helan Mountains, various components of Streaming Stillness were trained using StyleGAN, Pix2Pix, and MIDAS to obtain diverse information. The creation is grounded in extensive real data of Chinese topography, where the system synchronously trains the three-dimensional results generated by AI after deep learning on Chinese topography and the two-dimensional outcomes derived from AI's deep learning on traditional Chinese ink paintings.
The production of this artwork involves both the sculpting of the mountainous structure and the creation of digital imagery. Ultimately, the results are projected onto the surface of a 21 meter-long sculpture using eight projectors. A historically significant brick-walled space is transformed into an immersive and poetic realm, with the voids in historical space filled by floating motion images generated by AI.
Through the AI's translation of topography, Streaming Stillness exhibits different perspectives on civilization and diverse individuals' desires for imagination. Each person possesses their unique viewpoint which leads them down speculative paths related to civilization. The domain of this artwork, rich in the unknown, yet sensorially vivid, is essentially a virtual creation. It originates from the real world but does not exist within it. It exists beyond human experience, yet reaches towards a transcendent natural prototype. In Streaming Stillness, virtual no longer points to nothingness; instead, it approaches reality and disrupts it, providing the potential to reveal the unseen truth, or, perhaps, to "know the essence while embracing the virtual" (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching).
Artwork by Jiayu Liu
Artist Assistant:
Haobo Huang
Technical Director:
Louis Mustill
Content Design Director:
William Young
Content Technical Director
Xin Fang
Motion Graphic Design:
Tiankun Yu
Houdini Technician:
Zhaoxue Xiang
VFX:
Jiakun Sun
Machine Learning Technician:
Qihui Wang
Machine Learning R&D:
Aijia Wang, Ashiely Zhang
Surface Redesign:
Xiangyu Wang
Sculpture Redesign:
Bochen Zhang
Fabrication Director:
Junxia Zhang
Prototype Fabrication:
Nian Xiao, Weizhen Bai
Sculpture Fabrication:
Zhenfeng Ding, Jiajun Ding
Projection Director:
Junwei Yuan
Mapping Technician:
Chao Yuan
Film:
Mark Winterlin
Edit:
Matthew Watt
Project manager:
Tingting Wu
Special thanks
Qingxue Liu, Shujuan Ma, Chao Lu
In Cryptovoxels
In Streaming Stillness, artist used StyleGAN, pix2pix and MIDAS to train different models which obtain different information. Synchronize the 3D results generated by AI machine learning of Chinese terrain with the 2D results generated by another machine learning model and training of Chinese painting. Between the surreal dimension and the virtual field, a buffer zone is created for the audience.
In the Meta Universe, based on the state generated by the data of machine learning and operations for Chinese terrain, the model and algorithm of the machine are constantly adjusted to generate different results. Also, we select the most suitable results as material, reappearing in its metauniverse with the language of Voxels.
Without the space and mechanical constraints of real space, the land could extend on any side of space and develop a “karst cave” area. Which could be a completely different experience from the real world. Compared with the ‘buffer zone’ extending to the real world, this is also a port of extension of another world.
