We cordially invite you to a video mapping screening of VASULKA LIVE ARCHIVE, which will provide a new perspective on the work of Steina and Woody Vasulka using database imagery with visualizations of analytical work.

The video mapping will be projected on the front facade of the Brno House of Arts on December 20 at three time intervals: 18:00-18:30, 19:00-19:30, 20:00-20:30.

Keywords:

Vasulka family, video art, database imagination, machine vision, artificial intelligence

Multimedia creator Jiří Mucha examines the contents of the Vašulka Kitchen Brno archive using neural networks of artificial intelligence (AI). Through the analytical skills of AI used on Steina and Woody Vašulka videos, he deconstructs, layers and arranges videoshots next to each other in a new order: The result is a new art piece working with remix aesthetics, revealing the possible connections and meanings of Vašulka‘s works.

“The resulting audiovisual work consists of eighteen art pieces, created by Woody and Steina Vašulka, which I chose as a representation of their active career. I designated these artworks so they would follow each other visually, but at the same time they were created with the help of various tools. Thanks to an artificial neural network, we divided the selected videos into several blocks and the different add-ons, which we remixed with the original versions. We bring a new visual view of their work, ”Jiří Mucha describes video mapping.

The unusual exhibition format of the projection on the facade of the House of Arts of the City of Brno is part of testing various ways of making the contents of the Vašulka archive accessible, presenting alternatives to classical galleries and the possibility of presenting art in pandemic conditions.

“Videomapping is part of the exhibition triptych, which will offer unusual interfaces for getting acquainted with the work of the Vašulkas. The large-format videomapping projection interacting with the architecture of the House of Art will be followed by a presentation of their work in fully immersive virtual reality and a permanent interactive exhibition of videos on a website equipped with an artificial intelligence, “curator Jana Horáková comments on the project.

The results of the project will be made available on a website of artificial neural networks: www.vasulkalivearchive.net.

Credits: Curator: Jana Horáková Director and creative: Jiří Mucha Programmer: Tomáš Carda Artificial Intelligence: Pavel Sikora, Štěpán Miklánek (using the LUCID library) Sound post-production: Roman Sevčík Rental and installation of projection equipment: David Zaorálek and David Šamánek (Spectrum Brands) Technical support: Pavel Daněk (House of Arts)

About the author:

Jiří Mucha graduated in 2018 from the Theory of Interactive Media at Masaryk University. In his master thesis, he reconstructed the important exhibition Computer Graphic (1968) by the Brno curator Jiří Valoch with the help of artificial intelligence. The reconstruction was presented in the same year in the Brno House of Arts and in 2021 it was presented at the international festival Ars Electronica in Austria. Jiří Mucha works as a director and screenwriter of audiovisual projects of his own studio MUCHA.

The projection is an output of the project Media Art Live Archive: Intelligent Interface for Interactive Mediation of Cultural Heritage that responds to dynamic changes in archival and museum practice due to the global trend of digitization of cultural heritage, especially the ongoing digitization of archives of works of art and their online access. It is not limited to organizing the content of the archive with the help of traditional library tools, but also explores the potential of digital technologies for innovative ways of working with archives and interactive mediation of cultural heritage to the public. Specifically, the use of artificial intelligence in the form of machine or deep learning of artificial neural networks in the analysis of audiovisual works and the development of interfaces for interactive mediation of archive content in the online environment and in the form of installation in the physical space of the Brno House of Arts. As part of the project, an archive of video art pioneers Woody and Steina Vašulka that is owned by Vasulka Kitchen Brno is being processed in this way.

The symposium takes place within the project Media Art Live Archive: Intelligent interface for interactive cultural heritage mediation (MediaArtLiveArchive, TL02000270) co-financed with the state support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic within the ÉTA program.

The programme can be realized with the financial help of the Statutory of City of Brno and the Ministery of Culture Czech Republic.