Brain Factory (2018)
腦工場 (2018)
Brain Factory (2018)
腦工場 (2018)
Maurice Benayoun (France) & Tobias Klein (Germany)
莫奔（法國）及 托比亞斯．克萊因（德國）
Sound: Jean-Baptiste Barrière
聲音: Jean-Baptiste Barrière
Engineering support: Wang Xiao
工程支援: 王瀟
Brain Factory is an installation that allows the audience to give a shape to human abstractions through Brain Computer Interaction (BCI), and then to convert the resulting form into a physical object. The work examines the human specificity through abstract constructs such as CREATIVITY, COGNITION, and EMOTION. The project articulates the relationship between thought and matter, concept and object, humans and machine.
Brain Factory uses Electroencephalography (EEG) data captured by BCI. As a brain activity is unique, we developed a novel calibration process of the individual data readings and associated emotional responses within a framework of binary outcomes. This is key for a real-time feedback - a biofeedback - between the virtual generative processes and the brain's associated response. The calibrated communication between machine and human enables the reification, materialization and the sublimation (conversion of matter into data) of emotional responses to shapes, forms and reified objects. Forms are generated using particle systems submitted to an overview of human thoughts. To survive in a brain-based ecosystem, the evolutionist biomorphic model tries to find the best form according to the original concept to be shaped. The Brain factory fundamentally questions the cultural contextualization of forms associated with abstract concepts such as LOVE or FREEDOM, freed from the iconography, and articulates an underlying, semi-sub-conscious formal response.
The genealogy of each resulting form is collected as well as its cDNA (DNA of concept), defined by the neuro-design process. The next iteration of brain readings associated to the same abstraction, will inherit part of the previous cDNA, thus forming a more elaborate (universal?) organism and form. This process of sublimation and reification raises an acute question about the relation between thought and matter, work and art, assessment and control, as keys in our newly digitally enhanced power on the physical world.
The project narrates a new relationship between humans and machine. It raises questions about the nature of human thoughts and the role of humans in the age of control and sublimated materialism. The title Brain Factory suggests, humans may have to understand the specific agency of their brain-power in the age of artificial intelligence just as robots served the role as human hands in the industrial age.
《腦工場》是一個容讓觀眾透過人腦電腦互動(BCI)為人類抽象的想法造就形狀的裝置作品，它可以把生成的形態製成實物。作品探究人類對於不同抽象字彙（例如創意、認知、情緒等）的想像特性，此項目闡述了思想與物質、概念與客體、人類與機器之間的關係。
《腦工場》運用了經BCO在腦電圖 (EEG)所捕獲的數據；由於大腦活動是獨一無二的，我們在二元的輸出中開發了一套個體數據讀數和相關情緒反應的新穎校準過程。這是實時回饋的重點，一場遊走在虛擬衍生過程與大腦連結反應的生物反饋。機器與人類之間的校準通訊使對形狀、形式和實物、物化和昇華（把物質轉化成數據）的情緒反應能提供形狀、形態以及將之成為具體實物。透過把粒子系統遞送至人類思想的概圖便可衍生形態。為了要在基於大腦的生態系統中存活下來，進化論生物形態模型嘗試在當中找尋最佳的形式去塑造原始概念。作品《腦工場》從根本上質疑與抽象詞彙/概念相關的文化語境中的形式，例如愛或自由，把其從圖像學中解放出來，並闡明潛在的、半亞意識的正規反應中的可能性。
收集在每種所得的形式以反由神經設計所定義的 概念DNA (cDNA)，下一步就是把這些對於同一個抽象詞彙的讀數連結起來，延伸自之前的概念DNA，然後再塑造一個較為精細(又或是較通用的？)的生物體和形式。這種昇華及具體化的過程引發了對思想與物質、工作與藝術、評估與控制之間關係的尖端提問，這是我們物理世界由數位技術所增新能量的關鍵。
是次項目敍述了人與機器之間的新種關係；它提出了對人類思想的本質及人類在這個控制時代和昇華唯物主義中的角色作出提問。如作品之名「腦工場」所意，人類可能需要理解在這個人工智能的年代中人類的大腦力量，就像是機器人在工業日時代中所扮演人類雙手的角色一樣。
Maurice Benayoun
莫奔（莫里斯．貝納永）
Artist, theorist and curator, Maurice Benayoun (MoBen, 莫奔) is a pioneering and prominent figure in the field of New Media Art. MoBen’s work freely explores media boundaries; from virtual reality to large-scale public art installations, on a socio-political perspective. Maurice Benayoun’s work has been widely awarded (Golden Nica Ars Electronica 1998…) and exhibited in major international museums, biennials and festivals. Some of MoBen’s major artworks include The Tunnel under the Atlantic (VR, 1995), World Skin a Photo Safari in the Land of War (VR, 1997), the Mechanics of Emotions (2005-2014), and Cosmopolis (VR, 2005). Elaborating on the concept of “Critical Fusion” applied to art in physical or virtual public space, Maurice Benayoun initiated the Open Sky Project on the ICC Tower Hong Kong media façade.
With The Brain Factory and Value of Values, he is now focusing on the morphogenesis of thought, between neuro-design and crypto currency, brain and money. After teaching new media art practice and theory at Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne and Paris 8 University, and at the French National School of Fine Arts (ENSBA), Maurice Benayoun is currently full Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.
又稱莫奔（Moben），法國先驅新媒體藝術家及理論家，也是新媒體藝術領域的領頭人物之一。莫奔的作品自由探索媒體的界限，從社會政治角度出發，並由虛擬現實走至大型公共藝術裝置。他的作品曾獲多個國際大奬（包括1998年Ars Electronica的金奬等…..）並曾於多個國際主要的美術館、雙年展以及藝術節展出。其中的重要作品包括 The Tunnel under the Atlantic（虛擬現實，1995年）、World Skin a Photo Safari in the Land of War（虛擬現實，1997年）、the Mechanics of Emotions（2005年至2014年）以及Cosmopolis（虛擬現實，2005年）。莫奔在物理或虛擬公共空間中闡述了「關鍵融合」的概念，並在香港的ICC大樓的外牆屏幕發起了Open Sky項目。
透過作品The Brain Factory及Value on Values，他現時專注於思想的形態發展，作品概念遊走在神經設計、加密貨幣、大腦與金錢之間。 繼於法國第一大學、第八大學和國立藝美術學院中教授新媒體實踐以及理論後，現任香港城市大學創意媒體學院教授。
Tobias Klein
托比亞斯．克萊因
Tobias Klein works in the fields of Architecture, Art, Design and interactive Media Installation. His work generates a syncretism of contemporary CAD/CAM technologies with site and culturally specific design narratives, intuitive non-linear design processes, and historical cultural references. He sees the architect artist as the creator-craftsman that finally has the chance to overcome the fifteen- and sixteenth century schism of intellectual from manual labour, as well as the nineteenth-century gulf between automatic mechanization and poetic creation.
The works of his studio are exhibited international with examples being in the collection of the Antwerp Fashion Museum, the London Science Museum, the V&A, the Science Gallery (Melbourne), the Architectural Biennale Venice, the container (Tokyo), the Industry Gallery (Los Angeles), AIL (Vienna), the Bellevue Arts Museum, and the Museum of Moscow and Vancouver. His work is part of the inaugural ceremony and permanent collection of China’s first 3D Print Museum in Shanghai. He lectures and publishes internationally, recently winning SIGGRAPH 2018’s Best Art Paper Award for his research on the translation from traditional to digital Craftsmanship. Tobias is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.
托比亞斯專注於建築、藝術、設計及互動媒體裝置領域，他的作品透過融合當代CAD/CAM技術與場地空間，具有文化特定的設計敍事、非線性設計過程以及歷史文化參考的特色。他認為建築藝術家是創造者以及工匠，最終能有機會克服十五及十六世紀的智識分子與體力勞動之間的分派，以及十九世紀自動機械及詩意創作的鴻溝。
他工作室的作品曾於國際多個重要場所展出，包括Antwerp時裝藝術館、倫敦科學館、維多利亞和愛伯特博物館、墨爾本的科學藝廊、威尼斯建築雙年展、東京the container、洛杉磯的工業藝廊、維也納的AIL、貝爾維美術館以及莫斯科及溫哥華美術館等。他的作品是中國首個三維打印博物館(上海)的開幕作品以及其永久館藏的一部份。他富有多人個國際講課跟出版的經驗，近年他的傳統工藝到數位工藝的硏究曾於2018年的SIGGRAPH獲得最佳藝術論文奬項。
