Drawing Operations (Duet) is a performance centered on a drawing collaboration between human and machine.
In this duet, Sougwen and Drawing Operations Units: Generation 1&2 create an improvised drawing corresponding to 3 themes, tracing a narrative of human and machine; Mimicry, Memory and Future Speculations.
Each thematic chapter showcases an evolving robotic behavior linked to the artist's explorations of art and AI.
The 25 minute performance is accompanied by a visual projection and an original score by Aquarian.
The work is part of an ongoing series of Drawing Operations projects by Sougwen Chung.
a collaborative duet between human & machine
Collaboration is an exercise in behavioral empathy
PRAXIS: Drawing might always be anticipation, and to see a drawing, may trigger a foreseeing, which turns the empirically false observation into a speculatively true one.
Chapter 1
MIMICRY
Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1 mimics the artist’s gesture by seeing through an overhead camera, and analyzing the movement through computer vision software. The result is a synchronicity of movement between artist and machine, captured as a drawing artifact. We use drawing to denote ourselves; our existence within a scene.
We use drawing to denote ourselves; our existence within a scene.
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Chapter 2
MEMORY
Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 2 is linked to a neural net trained on extracted gestures from the artist’s previous drawings. The work speculates on artificial creativity and robotic memory.
Continued research focuses on the analysis of the visual style of historic artists and approaches to translating style into gesture, as well as the study of colour palettes in an artists works from which robotic arm will be able to select live.
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Exhbition & Performance
Drawing performances are 25 minutes in length. The collaboration is entirely improvised and showcases a process of human & robotic co-creation.
Drawing Operations Duet debuted at the Art Science Museum in Singapore as part of Global Art Forum: I am not a Robot.
Drawing Operations is part of an ongoing body of work supported by New Museum, Japan Media Arts Residency, Bell Labs E.A.T. Residency, and more.
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To learn more about the body of work, please visit the Press section.
For booking inquiries, please contact office@scilicet.xyz
For official press images, go here
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works by sougwen
GENESIS (2024)what becomes of the human hand?
Assembly Lines (2022)a painting performance with a robotic swarm connected to the flow of a city
Mutations of Presence (2021)Exploring spectrality through sequencing bio-feedback to a machine
F.R.A.N. Flora Rearing Agricultural Network (2020)exploring machine and flora as part of a sympoietic, self-supporting networked system with human as gardener.
Ecologies Of Becoming WithProject type
Exquisite Corpus (2019)a performance installation exploring human, machine, and ecological bodies
Omnia per Omnia (2018)a painting performance with a robotic swarm connected to the flow of a city
Into The Light (2019)an audiovisual AR installation
Artefacts (2019)a human and machine collaborative drawing
Drawing Operations (2018)a human and machine collaborative duet
Drawing Operations (2018)soon...
Drawing Operations (2017)a human & machine drawing collaboration involving memory.
Drawing Operations (2015)a human & robot drawing collaboration involving mimicry
Chiaroscuro (2013)a spatial interplay of light and shadow as an immersive installation
Preparatory Gestures (2017)a series of sculpture studies in VR
Mycelia (2018)a series of sculptures inspired by bio-inspired cognition
Ecdysis (2013)a study in performative architecture
High Tide (Étude Op. 2, No. 4)a painting exploring the dynamics of change
The Limitless, The Absolute (2017)a painting inspired by the 八卦 Trigrams of the IChing
Cardia (2012)a short film depicting a transgression from interior to exterior
Apolysis (2014)a short film in collaboration with Clint Mansell
Untitled (Étude Op. 1, No. 1-4)a series of drawings exploring synesthesia
Chiaro Oscuro Prototypesa series of form studies with paper
Topographies (2015)a series of paintings inspired by nature and flow states
Dénouement (Recurrent fevers of unknown origin)
