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Synthetic Creatures: the artworks on display
Synthetic Creatures is a retrospective that traces half a century of pioneering work by artist Rebecca Allen: from her early images on punch cards to 3D animations and virtual reality installations, including collaborations with Kraftwerk, Twyla Tharp, and Nam June Paik, including recent works with artificial intelligence, and presenting a comprehensive overview of her most significant works created specifically for MEET’s Immersive Room.
The following works are on display.
GALLERY 1: 1970s–1980s
CBS – Dan Rather Interview (1983)
Dan Rather from CBS News interviewed Rebecca Allen about the role of computers in society and featured her work as the theme for a news special titled “The Computers Are Coming – Part 3. Man or Machine”.
Girl Lifts Skirt (1974)
A series of drawings were used to create one of the earliest computer animated artworks. In 1974, Allen used a computer and punch cards to create her first digital artworks. With an interest in inserting sensuality into the computer, this short animation of a woman seductively lifting her skirt served as a comment on the absence of the female perspective in the development of digital technology.
Flirt (1974)
A series of drawings were used to create one of the earliest computer animated artworks. In 1974, Allen used a computer and punch cards to create her first digital artworks. With an interest in inserting sensuality into the computer, this short animation of a woman moving seductively served as a comment on the absence of the female perspective in the development of digital technology.
Swimmer (1981)
One of the first examples of computer animation of human motion using the very first 3D model of a female figure.
Woman Ascending a Staircase (1981)
Lightbox. Historical image of the first 3D computer-generated model of a female form in motion, as she transforms from a wireframe image to a solid, fully formed figure as she ascends the staircase. The title is a play on Marcel Duchamp’s famous painting “Nude Descending a Staircase”, but now she is ascending as she takes her first steps to a virtual world.
GALLERY 2 – THE 1990s
The Observer (1999-2019)
Sound Design: Tomàs Peire Serrate
The Observer provides a contemplative environment that feels both natural and synthetic, familiar and strange. It draws the audience into a world of moving abstract forms with their own rules of behavior. As an observer the viewer can see new ways of being. This work marks a voyeuristic return to Emergence: a game-like computer system that Rebecca Allen developed in the late 1990’s. Emergence includes a generative AI system that allows the artist to simulate life-like behaviors of animated artificial lifeforms. The viewer’s experience draws attention to the abstracted nature of the natural landscape and to the abstracted life-forms with their own rules of behavior. With this work Allen has created contemplative video akin to moving paintings.
The Bush Soul #1 (1997) – Outer World 1 e Inner World 2
Sound Design: Jay Flood
The artwork was created with the first version of the Emergence system, an AI software system and unique 3D game engine that was designed to create interactive live simulations full of artificial life. Though that system no longer functions, six videos were created (three in the Outer World and three in the Inner World) each revealing a unique experience and set of behaviours conveying different moods.
Outer World 1 and Inner World 2 are two series, each consisting of three videos, each of which offers a unique interactive live simulation experience.
Office Workers (1992)
Computer generated humans go about their mundane lives as office workers. Commissioned by Nam June Paik for a permanent 430 monitor video installation for the lobby of the new Chase Manhattan Bank headquarters in NYC. Of Special Note – Unique computer choreographic system utilized.
GALLERY 3: THE 2000s
Biophilia (2024)
Framed print on canvas with box frame. Biophilia is the term that refers to humanity’s innate love for the natural world. The installation draws from the tension between the human desire to stay connected to nature and living things as we are lured into life in the artificial world of the virtual. Our body connects us to the earth, to the physical world, to nature. In this work, with our body and brain in the cloud, contained by a barrier, the spinal cord emerges from below and transforms into the bundle of nerves called the cauda equina, Latin for the tail of a horse, named during a time when we connected more closely with the natural world. An actual horse tail provides the link from the virtual to the physical, as it hangs to the ground and connects to the earth, represented by natural moss.
The Tangle of Mind and Matter (2017)
Audio Effects: Mike D’Errico
In this virtual reality work, inspired by the mysterious relationship between the mind and the brain, we search the brain to reveal the mind. The mind takes on a human form and activates the conscious brain, encouraging the viewer to participate in the process. Though virtual, there is an intriguing, tactile sense to this search as one grabs, removes and observes individual brain parts derived from MRI data of an actual brain. And while our body stays grounded to the earth, reacting to the rising level of virtual water, the mind continues to explore beyond our horizon, leaving us to believe that there are other realities somewhere out there. The work is generative, so every time you engage with it, the experience will be different.
IMMERSIVE ROOM: ’80-’90
STEPS (1982)
Music: Carter Burwell
Inspired by Bauhaus Theater, this historical work was created as part of an art/research experiment merging performance and advanced technology, creating an illusion of dancing abstract forms. One of the earliest examples of human motion simulation of a dancing figure created on the computer.
Creation Myth (1985)
Music: Carter Burwell
Multi-channel video commissioned by Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell for the opening of the Palladium, a large-scale New York nightclub. The piece, which describes the birth of a new environment, was designed for Palladium’s 50-monitor video display system and utilizes unique fractal and particle system software to create one of the earliest examples of generative art. Other commissioned artists included: Francesco Clemente, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and Arata Isozaki. Of Special Note – One of the earliest examples of art utilizing state of the art generative computer modeling and animation methods.
Adventures in Success (1983)
Music: Will Powers (Lynn Goldsmith), Robert Palmer, Sting
This award-winning music video describes modern symbols of success through an artistic blend of two and three dimensional computer animation and live-action. This work is acknowledged for its unique aesthetic from both fine art institutions and popular culture venues. Aired frequently on MTV, VH1 and other international music video programs and exhibited in galleries and museums.
SMILE (1983)
Music: J. Brackman, Will Powers (Lynn Goldsmith), Nile Rodgers, Todd Rundgren
Award-winning music video that combines break dancers with their Bauhaus inspired computer generated partners. Aired frequently on MTV, VH1 and other international music video programs and exhibited in galleries and museums.
Musique Non Stop (1986)
Music: Kraftwerk
Allen was striving to create a “digital aesthetic” unique to the use of digital tools, while bringing the computer models to life through the development of a unique facial animation system. This work is considered a classic; acknowledged for its unique aesthetic from both fine art institutions and popular culture venues and continues to be exhibited internationally.
Emergent Behavior (1987)
Music: Peter Gabriel
This work examines the ways we communicate through our behavior. Deaf actors express their feelings through gestures while computer generated artificial life forms that simulate flocking behavior merge with New York City streets.
Steady State (1989)
Music: Clodagh Simonds
Music Producer: Carter Burwell
This work explores the dynamics of a relationship through the interactions of female and male body movements. The female character leaves the real world and travels into her private world of dreams represented by twisting, breathing structures inspired by the architectural work of Gaudi. But she ultimately returns to seek balance – a steady state – and reunites with her masculine side. Of Special Note – State of the art computer modeling and animation methods were employed.
Laberint (1992)
Music: John Paul Jones
Based on the Platonic myth that woman and man were once one androgynous form, live-action and computer generated characters weave between real and virtual worlds. Commissioned as part of a series of artworks that refer to the city of Barcelona. Of Special Note – State of the art computer modeling and animation methods were employed.
Point of Departure (1992)
Music: John Paul Jones, Peter Gabriel
Vast familiar landscapes, simulated on the computer, span over three screens of projections, creating a panoramic window that surrounds and fully immerses the audience. Of Special Note – The imagery was filmed live, in real-time, with a state-of-the-art E&S flight simulation system and the most complex, sophisticated 3D models of that time.
