collaboration for expression

(this was, perhaps, an impossible project.)

a collaboration is when two agents make something together which neither could have made on their own.

machines can help us move quicker than the fastest person alive, be more precise than the most fastidious watchmaker, and make sounds that no finger could strum. and yet, we like running, crafting things and strumming guitars.

algorithms can work with data like nobody’s business; they can collect, filter, organise and find patterns in data at speeds and scales that would be impossible for a human to do. a human can spontaneously express in a variety of ways (something no algorithm can do): scribble, dance, hum, use a prop or an instrument, or perhaps do something completely unexpected.

algorithms and humans might perhaps collaborate in the act of ‘expressing’ — with an algorithm providing data to trigger and fuel the human’s expression.

collaborators: prerana haridoss, ibm’s watson, rohit sharma, fernando virdia.
with thanks to: nadine galea & her violin; the residents at william temple house for drawing, humming, flapping & dancing; and george darrell for his images at the interfaces monthly talk.