The Bangalore International Centre became a haven for artists, activists, and tech enthusiasts as it held India’s first-of-its-kind AI Art Festival from 24 to 26 March 2023
Conceptualized by Jaaga’s BeFantastic (India), in association with FutureEverything, FutureFantastic is an exciting and ambitious new AI+Art festival as part of the British Council’s India Together UK Season of Culture, celebrating the remarkable bond between two countries and exploring our cultures, our shared planet and our relationship with digital technologies that will shape our future together.
The festival was composed of interactive art installations, music, dance and theatre performances, NFTs, games as well as panel discussions.
Taking place in Bangalore in March 2023, the FutureFantastic festival is a public exhibition of artwork and installations created in collaboration with Artificial Intelligence that communicate the urgency of the climate emergency.
Some of the most impactful installations included a teardrop captured to create an artwork dedicated to mourning our shared loss of nature due to the climate crisis, and another Indo- Futuristic project that was used to make pieces that create an emotional bond between their viewers and nature.
Here are some high-quality entries for powerful, immersive, and interactive installations which were presented at the FutureFantastic festival.
Only A Game (?)
Created by Pritha Kundu, Tiz Creel & Fabian Raith with support from David McFarlane, Tim Brunsden & Tanya Saxena, ‘Only A Game (?)’ is an interactive game experience where audiences can use their body movements to offset the gradual increase of global warming and co-create generative art in the process. The work conveys concepts underlying climate science, the urgency and reality of climate change, the role of us as individuals, and the power of working collectively.
Where do I come from? Where do I go?
Created by Malavika PC, Papia Chakraborty & Asli Dinc with the support of Pritha Kundu, Where Do I come from? Where do I go? an AI-generated installation in the form of a waterfall abundant with garbage. Created from datasets generated by the performers documenting the equation between them and their garbage, this work will encourage us to address our consumption and the garbage we amass daily.
Wood Wide Web
Created by Kanchan Joneja and Kristina Pulejkova with support from Anupam Mahajan and Cameron Naylor, The Wood Wide Web is a hybrid interactive installation, which will be bringing ancient endangered trees from India and the UK to life through the use of skeletal tracking and AI. The sacred forests get personified and tell their stories, evoking empathy in humans across the globe to inspire more care for the planet.
Give me a Sign
This AI Art is created by Diane Edwards(UK) and Upasana Nattoji Roy (India). Give Me a Sign is an interactive installation, where machine learning and hand gestures from the Indian dance ‘mudras’, are used to unlock stories, concerns, hopes, and predictions about the living world and our changing planet through a speculative child-like AI called Shunya. Give Me a Sign is an interactive installation, where machine learning and hand gestures from the Indian dance ‘mudras’, are used to unlock stories, concerns, hopes, and predictions about the living world and our changing planet through a speculative child-like AI called Shunya.
ClimateProv
Created by Blessin Varkey, Gaurav Singh, Ranji David & Tajinder Dhami, with support from Monica Hirano & Tiz Creel, ClimateProv is an interactive 60-minute AI theatre performance that provokes conversations about the climate emergency. Human performers work together with an AI performer to improvise live theatrical scenes based on suggestions and prompts related to climate change and its implications for humanity. Each performance of this show will be unique and different from the previous, due to its improvisational nature as well as the AI generating different prompts every time.
Future Fantastic was a brilliant idea and learning space for art and nature lovers. The focus of all the activities at the festival was to address the issue of climate change and also look for potential solutions. They used art to envision a better future while addressing our losses due to climate change using an interesting amalgamation of art and AI.