BRIAN ENO'S THE SHIP - A GENERATIVE FILM
Posted on September 15, 2016 by Lars Gredal
BRIAN ENO’S THE SHIP - A GENERATIVE FILM
A GENERATIVE FILM CREATED IN COLLABORATION WITH DENTSU LAB TOKYO
A COMPANION TO THE SHIP ALBUM OUT NOW ON WARP
http://theship.ai "Humankind seems to teeter between hubris and paranoia: the hubris of our ever-growing power contrasts with the paranoia that we're permanently and increasingly under threat. At the zenith we realise we have to come down again...we know that we have more than we deserve or can defend, so we become nervous. Somebody, something is going to take it all from us: that is the dread of the wealthy. Paranoia leads to defensiveness, and we all end up in the trenches facing each other a cross the mud.” - Brian Eno (Feb 2016) Taking this statement as a starting point and utilizing a bespoke artificial intelligence programme developed by the Dentsu Lab Tokyo, this new generative project explores various historical photographic images and real time news feeds to compose a collective photographic memory of humankind.
Developed especially for this piece, the artificial intelligence employs machine learning techniques to interpret its own ”memories” of the past, associating them with ongoing current events and presenting them in a unique generative film.
The Ship - A Generative Film is an exploration of the music and themes from the new Eno album ‘The Ship’ and forms a journey through modern history to explore the relationship between events present and past.
The viewer is invited to view this film and begin an internal discussion about how historical meaning is produced. Does the machine intelligence produce a point of view independent of its makers or its viewers? Or are we - human and machine - ultimately co-creating new and unexpected meanings?
Ultimately the response to Brian Eno's statement exists within the viewer. About The Ship album:
Originally conceived from experiments with three dimensional recording techniques and formed in two, interconnected parts, The Ship is almost as much musical novel as traditional album. Eno brings together beautiful songs, minimalist ambience, physical electronics omniscient narratives and technical innovation into a single, cinematic suite. The result is the very best of Eno, a record without parallel in his catalogue.
About Dentsu Lab Tokyo: Dentsu Lab Tokyo, which was established on October 1, 2015, is where solutions are found through creativity. A team that “thinks through creation” will bring new forms of creation through technology by combining research, ideation and development. Using technology as a starting point, it is engaged in the development of new forms of expression, an approach that is completely different from that used by advertising agencies to date. The keyword is “open innovation.”
While collaborating with affiliated artists and technologists both within Dentsu and outside the Lab, the team is working on creations and solutions in fields that transcend the advertising domain.
