Man Tin Lai
Eastern Wisdom Extracting Machine

The exhibition presents a video created by artificial intelligence that brings to life the wisdom of traditional Chinese landscape painting and geomancy.

The title of the exhibition refers to AI-machine learning technology as a knowledge extraction tool – "[AI as] an instrument of knowledge magnification that helps to perceive features, patterns, and correlations through vast spaces of data beyond human reach." (Pasquinelli and Joler) – contributing to the expansion Noosphere* of planet Earth. The exhibition will feature an AI-generated video that revives the legacy of traditional Chinese landscape painting Shan Shui in fusion with the Eastern teaching of geomancy called Feng Shui. Landscape images are enriched with the dimensions of depth and time using Gaussian rendering technology. Their permutations and transformations, performed by artificial intelligence, follow both the rules that were established for the depiction of landscapes within the Shan Shui school and the formal teaching of Feng Shui about the laws of spatial arrangement that support the flow of life energy. The result is a poetic audio-visual work in which a database of reproductions of landscape paintings is transformed into a living stream of natural scenery, in which landscapes embodying the harmonious coexistence of nature, cosmic forces and human knowledge evolve from the shared code of Eastern wisdom.

The artwork ‘Eastern Wisdom Extracting Machine’ develops its previous version entitled ‘Learning Shan Shui, Generating Feng Shui’ in a dynamic interplay of digital humanities and AI-arts. It is the next phase of artistic research project focused on the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) – specifically machine learning, computer vision, image interpolation and Gaussian division – to extract the essence of traditional Eastern wisdom from the vast databases of Chinese landscape paintings, thereby enriching the Noosphere of planet Earth with ancient Chinese geomantic concepts (Feng Shui and Shan Shui) embodied in their aesthetic and philosophical applications.

The initial phase of the project utilised machine learning and computer vision to interpret and regenerate Shan Shui paintings and Feng Shui formal principles. Utilising traditional Shan Shui paintings as foundational datasets, the AI algorithms learned to generate new landscapes that capture the core aspects of traditional elements and compositions. Frame interpolation facilitates seamless transitions between these AI-generated landscapes, creating visual narratives that reflect the traditional Shan Shui emphasis on multiperspectivity. Furthermore, computer vision technology analyses and interprets elements within the dynamic landscapes, allowing viewers to engage with both the visual information and the discrepancies between human and machine perception.

AI was also used in the generation of the audio component of the work. The AI-generated video was subsequently analysed by AI to produce descriptive texts, which were then converted into music using text-to-music technology. The final form of the soundtrack was achieved with the help of MAX MSP visual programming software.

Through Gaussian splatting, the project applies a Gaussian function to the AI-generated video, enhancing the spatial depiction of the landscapes. This technique transforms two-dimensional art into volumetric simulations, offering an immersive experience that resonates with the Shan Shui tradition o Mf artistically navigating natural environments. 

The artwork leverages AI as a transformative agent, merging traditional art and knowledge with the newest technological innovation to foster a new artistic paradigm, at the center of which is the symbiotic collaboration of the artist with artificial intelligence, and whose results embody the intention to expand the Noosphere - the realm of wisdom of our civilisation. This integration of technology inspires a deeper exploration into how traditional arts and their underlying philosophies can be both preserved and transformed through technological advancements.

*Noosphere (sphere of reason); a unified whole in which evolving society and nature merge, influencing each other in the closest possible way; the area of ​​interaction between society and nature, in which human activity is the main factor of development. The term was first used by French philosopher and mathematician Édouard Le Roy in 1927, inspired by the work of geologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and biochemist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky. (Wikipedia)

The exhibition takes place as part of the Prototype Festival, Brno Creative Days and AI Days Brno.

Organizers: 
TIM - Theory of Interactive Media FF MU
VISUALOVE
Brno Creative Days

Co-organisers:
The Statutory City of Brno
South Moravian Region