Chiara Passa at the panke.gallery

At the panke.gallery in Berlin, a historical gallery that has hosted the most important pioneering experiments in the field of new media art, is currently on view Chiara Passa’s solo exhibition, Object (RE) Oriented Reality. Augmented Reality, GPT3 AI models, GAN and mesh algorithms come into play to interpret real space by mapping it to make it vibrant, abstract and constantly changing.

Null Void 0 (2017-2023), an augmented reality and AI work that interacts with a wall drawing, explores the theme of void as a potential for creation. Visitors are invited to play with the app in an attempt to reconstruct the actual wall paper. Touching the screen generates the solids (more than 100) that make up the 3D drawing. Each piece can be scaled, translated and rotated while emitting a (randomly generated) AI phrase that speculates on the practice of computer vision and the AI model of object recognition. For the most part, the AI will not recognize the wall-drawing piece, causing unexpected and strange shifts of meaning on its own form.

Abstract Space (2023), augmented reality and artificial intelligence, superimposes an imaginary, minimalist environment of shadow volumes on the gallery space using GPT3 AI models and some GANs.

Also using AR and AI, Depth Data Space (2022) uses pre-trained artificial intelligence algorithms that interpret real space to design an in situ point cloud structure. Each point cloud is a mini-sculpture. In fact, thanks to artificial intelligence, the real-time depth buffer is transformed into nano-sculptures that, when viewed all together, draw a large, vibrant texture that covers the real place. Tablet and smartphone screens connect with space, at a touch they generate random sentences (spoken by an artificial intelligence) on physics, quanta, dimensions, micro-macro spaces, energy, strings, probabilistic nature, etc.

From the “Contextual Awareness series”, Gold Environment (2022) uses pre-trained artificial intelligence algorithms to recognise real space and create site-specific meshes throughout the real place. From the tops of the meshes, viewers can see a series of random, nomadic objects grow from the walls and floor that move and grow even more when touched. The audience, through tablets and smartphones, touching any point on the screen generates random sound effects, while being invited to look beyond the real surface. Gold Environment recreates an ontological vision of place by speculating on human perception, where the machine creates a generative object-oriented texture in continuous transformation around the viewers.

The sculpture series “Object Oriented Stones” (2017-ongoing) is a series of abstract 3D sculptures in augmented reality. The work shows an alternative and visionary side of the stones, which appear animated by a kind of bizarre nature that moves beyond its own functionality. We are inside the space of Object Oriented Ontology.