万物源于比特/It From Bit @多馀美术馆/Extrart Base

万物源于比特

It From Bit

2017.12.1 – 2018.3.4

艺术家：菲托·萨格雷拉

策展人：毕昕

Artist：Fito Segrera

Curator：BI Xin

@ 多余美術館 | Extrart Base

代码是否具有重量？算法系统如何理解颜色？浪花的最小单位可以是字节吗？现实的本质究竟为何，似乎是个永远无法回答的问题，甚至“世界”这个词汇的真实性亦待推敲。在这个即将坠入虚空的问题边缘，哥伦比亚艺术家菲托·萨格雷拉（Fito Segrera）提出了一种可能性――世界是存在于我们感官中的信号集合，是感官的幻想与心理的结构。正如20世纪的物理学家约翰·阿奇博尔德·惠勒（John Archibald Wheeler）提出的概念“万物源于比特”，自然的量子化源于信息的量子化，比特成为终极而不可分的粒子。萨格雷拉的作品就在物质（it）/现象（phenomena）与比特（bit）之间形成新的认知方式，通过比特与原子之间的“互译”来达到模拟和表征的概念。

Does a computational code hold any weight? How does an algorithm comprehend colours? Amongst waves of the ocean, could a bit become its smallest unit? What is the nature of the reality seems to be a never-ending question, with one answer leading to another question. Even the veracity of the word, "reality", demands further contemplation. While dwelling on the verge of this question that could fall into the abyss of the void, Colombian artist Fito Segrera sheds light on a possibility – the world as we know it is illusory, a mental construct, a realm where signals of human senses gather. A 20th Century physicist, John Archibald Wheeler shared a similar idea. His concept of "It from Bit" proposes that quantized nature derives from quantized information, and so that the bit becomes the indivisible end-particle. Segrera's work establishes a new perception through the transmutation of bits into it (phenomena) and vice-versa. Here, the world is simulated and represented by the "dialogue" between the bit and the atoms.

知感：丢失的记忆…

人脑-电脑接口、定制软件、数码3D雕塑、生成书、印刷品

2016

《知感: 丢失的记忆…》装置将科技置于感知之上。装置由人脑－电脑接口和嵌入式摄像头组成，实时扫描艺术家的大脑活动，并记录下他走神的时刻。通过计算机算法，装置能够同时记下当时的脑波信息和所拍摄图片，并且利用开源工具解析这些信息。作为结果, 所有丢失的记忆被渲染成一种三维虚拟世界中的巨大抽象雕塑。同时, 装置自动生成并打印出一本日志集，呈现出机器对这些丢失记忆的理解。

Agnosis: the lost memories…

Brain-computer interface, custom software, digital 3D sculptures, generative book, prints

2016

Agnosis: the lost memories… proposes a system which embeds a technological layer over the human biological one. The system uses a brain-computer interface with an embedded camera. It constantly scans the artist's brain activity and records moments where his attention drops. Using this data and algorithms, the system then is able to register these moments of absence, as both brainwaves information and images. In parallel, by using accessible online tools, the system autonomously analyzes and interprets these memories.

As a result, all lost memories are rendered as abstract sculptures in a 3D virtual world (digital monoliths). At the same time, an autonomously generated log book is produced and printed (machine thoughts / interpretations of the lost memories).

02

[软]图像的背叛

液晶显示屏、微型计算机、网络路由器、认知计算引擎和定制软件

装置

2016

作品《[软]图像的背叛》用认知计算系统及互联网技术探究了观念艺术的新形式。这件作品以观念艺术大师雷尼·马格利特在作品《形象的叛逆》中的名言“这不是一只烟斗”为起点，进行了艺术与机器学习的实验。即以线上智能系统替代我们的物理自然认知，从而揭示了一种崭新而混合的现实观。

该装置由两个连着带框液晶屏的电脑构成，嵌入墙体。左侧的电脑在互联网上以六件事物的图像为对象进行搜索：一个管道/烟斗，一把扫帚，一个锤子，一块海绵，一个罐子或一颗鸡蛋。每当一张图片从必应（Bing）的图片搜索引擎中被抓取出来，系统便将其提交至一个认知计算引擎――一个被训练为可以识别、分析和描述人类形态图像的人工神经网络。其结果会在右侧的屏幕上显示，揭示机器所体验的现实概念。与马格利特原作异曲同工，并以信号的方式证明了图像如何“背叛”了我们关于现实观，作品《[软]图像的背叛》揭示了由先进在线人工大脑揭示的现实之扭曲，以及其以何种方式影响了我们的感知。

The Treachery of [Soft] Images

LCD screens, micro-computers, Internet router, cognitive computation engine and custom software.

Installation

2016

The Treachery of [Soft] Images is an inquiry into new forms of conceptual art which make use cognitive computational systems and Internet technologies. The piece appropriates Rene Magritte's famous statement "This is not a pipe" in his painting "The treachery of images" and utilizes it as the starting point for an experiment in art and machine learning, hence revealing a new hybridized notion of reality rendered over our natural cognition by intelligent on-line systems.

The installation consists of two computers with framed LCD displays inserted into a wall. The computer on the left searches on the Internet for an image of six possible objects: a pipe, a broom, a hammer, a sponge, a jar or an egg. Once an image is scraped from bing's image search engine, the system submits it to a cognitive computation engine, an artificial neural network trained to recognize, analyze and describe images in a human-like form. The result is displayed on the right screen of the installation, revealing the conceptual reality experienced by the machine. In a similar way than Magritte's original piece, which evidences the way images betray our notion of reality through signs, The Treachery of [Soft] Images reveals the distortion of reality rendered by cutting edge on-line artificial brains and the way these affect our perception.

03

后虚空派

数字3D物件模型（骷髅、电视、牛、刀及茶壶）、谷歌地图应用编程接口及定制软件

软件作品

2017

16和17世纪的艺术家经常关注与尘世生活的无意义感，以及所有俗世物质与追求的转瞬即逝。虚空派（Vanitas）即为这些早期存在主义焦虑的表现符号。这些艺术品是对黑暗和封闭空间内物体的视觉表现，作为典型的陪葬艺术，提醒人们生命的短暂和死亡的突然，亦被认为殡葬静物派绘画。

作品《后虚空派（Post-Vanitas）》为软件作品，它复兴了古老的艺术形式、视觉语言及思想，在一个科技化和互联的世界中重新思考其意义。运用定制软件和网络技术生成出3D世俗对象（如虚空派静物画艺术中的视觉形象），然后在一个不可预知的空间内呈现它们。该软件实时从谷歌地图引擎上抓取图片，并将其拼凑成360°全景图，然后作为纹理应用到计算机生成的三维空间。这种结果就像是在动态的、程序化的虚空派活跃在网络空间，在谷歌地图建造的平行视觉世界中漫游。

Post-Vanitas

Digital 3D mundane objects (skull, T.V, cow, knife and teapot), google maps API and custom software

Software

2017

Artists from the 16th and 17th centuries were often concerned about the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. Vanitas are symbolic representations of these early existential anxieties. These artworks were visual compositions of objects in dark and closed spaces; typically used as funerary art reminding of the brevity of life and suddenness of death. One could easily refer to these as some kind of mortorious still life paintings.

Post-Vanitas revives the visual language and ideas implied in this old form of art, rethinking its meaning in a technologized and interconnected world. Using custom software and web technologies, this piece generates digital 3d mundane objects (as in Vanitas and still life art) and renders them in an unpredictable space. The software scraps, in real-time, google maps engine's images and stitches them together to create 360°panoramas that are then applied as textures to computer generated three-dimensional spaces. The result are dynamic procedural Vanitas jumping in cyberspace; traveling within the parallel visual representation of the world constructed by google.

04

海浪转译

远程海浪数据库、金属鼓、金属珠、定制电子零件及软件

装置

2015

《海浪转译》通过互联网应用程序端获得的实时数据，这些接口拥有分布于世界各地的海洋传感器。只要提供一组坐标（经度/维度），该软件就能获取在该特定位置的海浪高度与周期，以模拟的形式重建数据。提取的数据映射到运动中，生成模拟的声音；作品将海洋的一部分进行数字化地“提取”，并将其置换到展览空间内。

Realtime Wave Transcoder

Remote Oceanographic data, metallic drums, metal beads, custom electronics and software

Installation

2015

This installation takes realtime data available on internet APIs that own marine sensors distributed around the world. With a set of coordinates (latitude, longitude) the software gets the height and period of the waves in that specific location to then reconstruct the data in an analog form. The extracted data is mapped to motion which generates analog sound; dislocating a portion of ocean and transposing it into the gallery space.

小提示：该作品在咖啡区天花板上。

TIPS: This work is hanging from the roof in the cafe area.

关于艺术家

About the Artist

菲托·萨格雷拉是一位专注于新技术与数字媒体创作的哥伦比亚艺术家，同时也是一名视听及多媒体制作的技术专家，目前担任新时线媒体艺术中心研究/创造部主任。他目前的研究与创作实践采纳数字哲学、人工智能、一元论和现代物理学的元素，同时也使用物理计算、软件程序及信息/远程通讯技术来探索关于现实本质及宇宙物理性的本体论问题。

Fito Segrera is a Colombian artist, technologist and Head of Research/Creation at Chronus Art Center, Shanghai. His current research and creative practice appropriates elements from digital philosophy, artificial intelligence, monism and modern physics while using physical computing, software programming and information/ telecommunication technologies to inquiry in fundamental ontological questions regarding the nature of reality and the physicality of the universe.

关于多余美術館

About Extrart Base

由補時延伸出的新鲜艺术计划，仍在定义中。A brand new art project generated from EXTRA TIME that is still defining itself.

它的第一个空间设在设计互联|海上世界文化艺术中心。Its first space is located at DESIGN SOCIETY.

深圳市南山区蛇口望海路1187号103号

No.103, 1187 Wanghai Road, Shekou, Nanshan District, Shenzhen

周日 - 周四 10:00-22:00
周五 - 周六 10:00-22:30

Sunday - Thursday 10:00-22:00
Friday - Saturday 10:00-22:30