Marc Lee, CAON, FutureFantastic
A roomful of artistes, enthusiasts, activists, and anybody who had an opinion and a voice, sat together for a wonderful rendition of the melody — CAON Control and Optimise Nature, conducted by Marc Lee, from Zurich (https://marclee.io/en/home/).
CAON — control and optimize nature — Mobile App as Interface for Interactive Installations
Introduced by Marc Lee himself at the venue, it was good to also understand the Graphics and AI tools used — SD/DallE/*variants, Unreal E, some GPT, Photoshop, Android. Dev Aggrawal shows some nifty tricks about the technical side of the setup. Divided into teams, the participants explored various facets of AI and influence on nature and humans. Some even debated the influence of bias inherent in the datasets.
CAON was a live setup, the pixels streaming effortlessly from a server afar, with the viewer of the innumerable insects feeling right in the middle of an infinite forest, attached through the umbilic of a hanging cable connected to a mobile phone, serving as its roving eyes and hands.
As we move the phone around, its sensors far less sensitive than our all expecting human sensors, it is more than compensated for by the relish of seeing the screens move in response to the slightest movements. A wave of red, green and cyient washes through the room, with lines connecting to each species as if they were part of one giant living insect.
One question though — why are the insects static, why do they not move ? A replica of what we humans have become, immobile, immune to changes around us ? It would be fascinating to see how a moving set of species might look.
As we pause and focus on an interesting colorful insect specimen of the future, we are inexorably captured by the statistics that flow down the right side of the companion screen, showing the past history of the species, and how it is vulnerable. It is as if the future looks down upon us, a small silvery light, flashing upon us in the dark setting of the room, just as the exhibit ends and the guide comes to us and murmurs something about Marc Lee, and we realise we are still in this world and need to rush back to get to that car before it gets towed away by BTP.
Amazing, and kudos to Marc Lee and the team that put this together!
