Art and AI converge at C2 Montreal

Fifteen fine arts students worked at C2 Montreal this year, embarking on a complex art-science project with UK-based artist Mat Chivers’ that involves local start-up Element AI and the Musée d’Art de Joliette (MAJ).

C2 Montreal, the annual international business conference which brings thousands of people together to discuss commercial, technological and creative trends, featured Chivers’ performance project, entitled “Migration,” where 1,500 sculptures were shaped and molded in clay by conference participants.

“Concordia students ran the installation under Mat’s supervision. They invited conference-goers to take part, helping them make prints and scan their work,” says Linda Swanson, a ceramics professor in the Department of Studio Arts coordinating Concordia’s participation in the project.

Art installation as data collection exercise

But this man-made work is only the first stage of a larger art project which will culminate with an exposition at the Musée d’art de Joliette in October.

The C2 installation is actually a massive “data collection exercise” says Chivers, that will enable an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program to produce its own sculpture based on the data produced at C2.

“The tools we use shape the way we think,” says Chivers. “But now we are at a moment where our tools will exceed our own intelligence. I wanted to do something that would bring together early human engagement with material with our late human engagement with material.”

The hundreds of man-made clay sculptures take the form of human hands holding and squeezing clay. After Chivers and his student team scan and catalogue these prints, he will work with Element AI to feed the data into a computer so that an AI program can produce its own sculptural design.

“The project sets up a counterpoint between these sculptures which are entirely made by human hands, and the AI’s work, which will be entirely untouched by human hand,” says Chivers.

First time AI will process 3D data

Site-specificity is important to this work, Chivers says. Swanson and her students helped locate, dig and prepare local clay to be used in his installation. And the AI sculpture will be robotically milled from Impactite, another material sourced from Quebec.

“Impactite is a stone created from a meteorite strike in Quebec. The impact turned stone to liquid, and reformed it into a new material. I want to bring material from our geological past into a relationship with the near future.”

A project of this magnitude requires collaboration between the art and tech worlds. It is a firm collaboration between art and science.

“I think the more conversation there is between these fields, the better,” says Chivers. “This is the first time AI will be used to process 3D data.”

The project is supported by Montreal-based companies Element AI and USIMM, with stone-production supported by Duchesne Lac-Mégantic and design help from local high-end designer UNTTLD.

Getting a handle on visualizing AI

Migration’s final exposition at the MAJ in the Fall will display the 1500 clay prints made at C2, the AI sculpture made from impactite, a film about the project and a series of drawings.

What’s so exciting is that no one knows what form the AI’s sculpture will take, says Chivers.

“We’re all trying to get a handle on visualizing AI, which is so obscure,” says Swanson. “The performance at C2 is as much a part of that as the final AI representation.”