Art, made with code, opens at London’s Barbican
By Paul
Kinlan, Staff Developer Advocate and tinkerer
Good News Everybody!
DevArt
has officially opened at the Barbican’s
Digital
Revolution Exhibition, the biggest exploration of digital creativity ever staged in
the UK.
(Images - Andrew
Meredith)
Technology has long gone hand in hand with art and with DevArt we’re showcasing the developers
who use technology as their canvas and code as their raw material to create innovative,
interactive digital art installations.
Karsten
Schmidt,
Zach
Lieberman, and duo
Varvara
Guljajeva and Mar Canet, have been commissioned by Google and the Barbican for
Digital Revolution. Alongside these three commissions, a fourth -
Cyril
Diagne and Beatrice Lartigue - were
handpicked
as a result of DevArt’s global initiative to discover the interactive artists of tomorrow. You
can also see their
incredible
art online and through our exhibition launch film here:
Play the World, 2014. Zach Lieberman [View on
Github]
Using
Google Compute Engine,
Google Maps Geolocation API and
openFrameworks, Zach has been able to
find musical notes from hundreds of live radio stations around the world, resulting in a
unique geo-orientated piece of music every time a visitor plays the piano at the centre of the
piece.
Image by Andrew Meredith
Wishing Wall, 2014, Varvara Guljajeva & Mar Canet [View on
Github]
Taking advantage of
Google Compute
Engine,
Web
Speech API,
Chrome
Apps,
openFrameworks and
node.js, Varvara and Mar are able to capture a whispered wish, and let you watch it transform
before your eyes, allowing you to reach out and let it land on your hand.
Image by Andrew Meredith
Co(de)
Factory, 2014, Karsten Schmidt [View on
Github]
Android,
Google Cloud Platform,
Google Closure Compiler,
WebGL, WebSockets, and
YouTube have been combined by
Karsten to allow anybody to create art and become an artist. It empowers people by giving them
the tools to create, and offers them the chance to have their digital piece fabricated in 3D
and showcased in the exhibition.
Image by Andrew Meredith
Les
Métamorphoses de Mr. Kalia, 2014, Béatrice Lartigue and Cyril Diagne
[View on
Github]
Android,
Chrome Apps,
Google App Engine, node.js,
openFrameworks have enabled Béatrice and
Cyril to create tracking technology that transforms movement into a visual performance where
visitors take on the persona of Mr. Kalia, a larger-than-life animated character, that
undergoes a series of surreal changes while following your every movement.
Image by Andrew Meredith
DevArt will tour the world with the Digital Revolution Exhibition for up to five years
following the Barbican show in London.
Soon we’re also starting our
DevArt
Young Creators program — an education component of DevArt designed to inspire a new
generation of coders — each led by the DevArt interactive artists. Developed alongside the
UK’s new computing curriculum, the workshops have been designed especially for students aged
9-13 years who have never tried coding before. Each workshop will be developed into lesson
plans in-line with the UK’s new national computing curriculum, and distributed to educators by
arts and technology organisations.
Paul Kinlan is a Developer Advocate in
the UK on the Chrome team specialising on mobile. He lives in Liverpool and loves trying to
progress the city's tech community from places like DoES Liverpool hack-space.
Posted by
Louis Gray, Googler
