Genesis: a series of speculative machine constructions
At the intersection of art and technology, Sougwen Chung’s GENESIS explores the synergy between the human hand and the robotic form as the two evolve into new spatial and temporal orientations. The collection is the first chapter of a growing library of forms, a collection of speculative machine constructions sculpted through a bespoke virtual reality process guided by the artist’s avatar. In a cinematic symphony blurring the lines between sculpture, drawing, and dance, suspended mechanical drawn lines unravel to reveal chromatic, serpentine forms as they echo the intricate choreographies of Chung.
The gestures are collected as movement data culminating in a ground-breaking spatial dataset forming the foundation for the upcoming D.O.UG._6 AI system, posed to advance the creation of symbiotic machines. ‘I’m excited by creating a dataset out of 3D lines, lines that operate as drawing, as sculpture, as dance, to sculpt a new way of thinking about not just the drawn line, but what the future of the robotic form can be. One of the interesting things about the sculpting process is that I’m really able to create different speculative machines of my own imagination,’ Sougwen Chung tells designboom. Returning the marks-made-by-hand in virtual space back to the tactile materiality in the physical realm, a series of 3D printed sculptures resembling liquid mercury were produced and installed in collaboration with Bulgari in Milan. The first of these datasets was debuted at Art Dubai Digital 2024 on February 28 with HOFA alongside the first NFT drop.
all images and header video courtesy of Studio Silicet
from virtual reality hand drawings to 3d printed sculptures
For Sougwen Chung, drawing serves as the foundation of human communication, shaping our understanding of time, and envisioning both past and future. ‘I love the expressive gesture, and I’m always trying to push and translate it, whether that’s through biofeedback or through working in performative space, on canvas,’ they share. With GENESIS, this fundamental concept is taken to new heights allowing for the exploration of drawing in novel multisensory and multidimensional experiences. The artist’s LIFE/LINES process forms the basis of this collection, leveraging spatially recorded gestures to generate digital geometries for physical fabrication.
By utilizing technologies such as virtual reality fabrication and motion capture avatars, the movements of Chung’s body are recorded and rigged to a virtual 3D avatar. In this immersive virtual performance, the GENESIS Form digital sculptures are given shape. These are brought to life through diverse fabrication techniques, from large-format 3D printing to custom chrome plating, creating sculptural representations of abstract serpentine forms for the debut installation in October 2023. Suspended within the room, [they] mirror the liquid mercury texture, with their contours reflecting the intricate process on the surrounding walls. ‘These constructions are inspired by living organisms, by insects, by the natural world, for different ways of thinking about what a machine can be beyond the robotic arm,’ notes Chung.
sougwen chung enhances human-machine collaboration
GENESIS spotlights the integration of sensory processes and machine intelligence to shape perceptions of the mark-image relationship, while utilizing virtual reality technologies such as infrared, lidar, and positional sensors. As such, the research project establishes a new foundation for an integration of embodied cognitive processes, rooted in the belief that novel sensory processes can create new speculative forms. This convergence of art and technology unveils new forms of expression, demonstrating the potential of spatial sensing and human-machine interoperability in shaping emerging artistic intersubjectives.
Reflecting on… Sougwen Chung shares: ‘I think with the popularisation of generative models and generative AI, which at the moment is based on images, I think there’s a lot of despair or fatalism around the image and the creative process. In that it seems like the relationship of text-to-image is really how people are thinking about image making these days. I’m trying to push back against that a little bit, and really celebrate the mark and the process, and show that there are still really vibrant and interesting ways of engaging with creative technology and tools that aren’t replacing a medium, but creating a whole new genre. That’s one of the contexts that are driving the GENESIS works.’
