Curated by Shiwen Chen.

My project is about generative time art in engagement with participators including games, art knowledge sharing, and group artwork making. The vision of my project is conveying the importance of time and the influence of generative art. Generative art is now a trending that calls for the idea that everyone can make art. I think art has its democratic orientation. 

For the details of my project, firstly, Sign-in and welcome loop will be held at the studio of main building, people are going to introduce themselves and be divided into three groups. Then there will be a game part, participants are going to play hopping at the outside area of ECA café. The game intro: There will be three buckets of materials put 15meters from the starting line. When the start signal is released, three competitors could run to the buckets and snatch as many stuffs as they can and run back to let the next people turn over. I would stop the game once one of the buckets is empty. Attention: the amount of the dropped materials cannot be counted into score. There will be three rounds and each group will get three grades for their average mark of the first loop. Time consumption of the first section: 30mins.

(Hand drawing poster of my game)

( Generative artwork Fifty Sisters by Jon McCormack)

Secondly, participators will be led back to the studio and I would share something related to time and generative art with my participants and ask them some questions in the process, people are encouraged to answer as much questions as they can, it is not about right and wrong, it is about being parts of the team. And one answer equals one score. I’ve chosen two topics to share. The first one is The Long Now Foundation which interprets the ethical idea of rescuing extinct animals and counting the 10000years time in the future for the cultivation of human being. Here is its website link: https://longnow.org History is so important that no matter what human are going to explore and learn, they have to grasp the history behind those things. The second topic would be the knowledge sharing of generative art as known as algorithm art. A website called ACRYLICODE is super interesting that people can create whatever they like by changing the parameters supplied. For more information, please visit https://www.acrylicode.com Additionally, some related generative artists and their works will be showed and explained at the same time. One is Jon McCormack and the other is Lauren McCarthy, they are both renowned generative artist. Jon applies himself to use computer as his creative partner, and the picture above is one of the famous works of him that based on the logos of fuel companies, he then used code programming to leave the evolutionary work to computers. Lauren is famous for setting herself as an AI in the human version of Amazon Alexa, she wondered that to what extent can people accept humane AI steps in their intimate life and how AI changes people’s life. This section will take about 50mins.

(Generative artwork Lauren by Lauren McCarthy)

Next, group artwork making will be the last loop of my project. I would ask my three groups of participators to collaborate with their group members to finish an artwork based on their own cognition and also what they’ve learned from last loop with the materials they grabbed in the game. These materials come from ECA students’ leftover stuffs, supporting the concern of environment sustainable development. Three judgements will mark each group’s works and this section’s grade takes 40 percent of the final grade as the game’s mark takes 20 percent and the questions answering score takes the proportion of 30 percent. The group work time is limited to 20mins. 

At the end, the outcomes of each group can be traded and kept as keepsakes of joining my project. Highest grade gainer group members will get some awards. If there is spare time, some popular time travel shows will be played for participants to watch.

Location: Empty grassy area in front of ECA café; One studio at ECA main building

Dates / duration: 1 day, 3hrs