Moonlight and Magic 2023 was the biggest one yet! The event is held annually in November in Downtown Courtenay as a way of welcoming in the winter season. Produced by the DCBIA and Elevate the Arts, the arts have always been front and center – from local musicians and DJs to participatory artmaking activities. This year, Comox Valley Arts produced Humanity Required: Art Experiments with Light.
The idea behind Humanity Required is that “humanity” has two distinct definitions, one referencing our collective ‘human-kind’, the other referring to an innate quality of benevolence and good. As we explore the many different uses, benefits and moral dilemmas with advancing AI technology, the relationship between human-beings and artificial intelligence is one that remains collaborative. Artificial intelligence requires humans to design and develop technologies, but should it also require humanity?
We considered the humanity we require, and brought light into the darkness during a time of uncertainty, war and suffering, while also celebrating the positive creative uses of AI. Participants engaged in the conversation passively, or actively with Greg Treadwell’s interactive art installations, Presence and, I Poked a Hole in the Sky and by drawing with light inside our new Art Wagon.
A bit about the works on display:
Presence
Presence is an interactive art installation that depends on audience participation to create the final artwork. Participants move through a space, towards a blank screen. As people move through the space in front of the screen, their motion triggers the animation. Using the activity of the audience, the images on screen move, scale, and deform. Now the audience is collaborating with the code, and can explore and play with the environment, creating a unique digital art piece that only lasts a moment, and can not be recreated.
I Poked a Hole in the Sky
An ongoing project using audio input to create animated reactions. Focused on geometric shapes, this piece seeks to playfully explore how one sense (vision) can share the experience of another (sound). The personal perceptual phenomenon of Synesthesai as a shared experience.
Artist Bio:
Greg Treadwell is an artist and coder, who works under the name Assembled Photons Studio. Greg’s interactive art has been shown in both public and private events. As a solo practitioner, Greg seeks to build relationships with complimentary individuals and organizations, either to collaborate on projects, or to expand capabilities. Greg is a recipient of the Comox Valley Arts Incubator Microgrant Program.
