<Generative Composition I 04>

<AR Biennale, NRW Forum Düsseldorf, 2023>

„Generative Composition I 04“ is a generative and interactive AR experience that Banz & Bowinkel created site-specifically for the Hofgarten in Düsseldorf on the occasion of the AR Biennale „Hybrid Natures“ 2023 (NRW-Forum).
„Primitives“ – the basic forms of graphic computer programmes – have an algorithmically generated life of their own and populate the terrain of the Hofgarten. Based on flora and fauna, the ‚primitive agents‘ can grow, hop, fly, glow in the dark, form swarms, make sounds and react to touch. The behaviour is accompanied by a computer-generated voice from off-screen, which comments on the encounter between the virtual and the real environment.
The philosopher Jacques Derrida argued in the 1983 film „Ghost Dance“ that the ghosts formerly inherent in nature are now to be found in human technologies, and that we who interact with these technologies thereby become ghosts ourselves. From today‘s perspective, his thoughts seem fascinatingly contemporary. The real world is quite naturally augmented by simulated worlds in which we in turn no longer act purely physically but with our avatars. Thus, Banz & Bowinkel‘s work plays with the idea that the mobile phone gadget is both a body extension and a coach for „techno-mindfulness exercises“ with which we wander through and experience the new worlds.