Not About Money—Digital Art after’Blockchain‘

Sensation, moves the human heart. Natural objects touch the human senses, allowing the subject to develop awareness and empathy for the world around him. While ancient wisdom and technology always seem to confirm the evolution of human perception towards degradation, at the same time, the invention of electronic sensing and computers has expanded new ways for human beings to obtain information and feedback. In the digital extension of the senses, our sensible world is also changing, generating its new face.
From smart homes and autonomous driving to atmospheric detection and communication satellites, electronic artefacts have infiltrated all dimensions of our lives, and information communication and networking technologies are enabling the interconnection of all things. The earliest incarnation of the Internet of Things (Internet of Things, abbreviated as :loT) also came from scientists at work who were troubled by the desire to keep abreast of cross-floor coffee makers, and so wrote a programme that captured real-time images of coffee pots with a camera. This was a “time trick” that took place at the Troy Computer Laboratory in Cambridge in 1991. Since then, intelligence-based information transmission and control has opened up the human race to a more precise perception and imagination of the outside world.

From another dimension, the senses, after acquiring information, depend on the processing power of the terminal in order to be able to produce feedback and judgement. The logic of thinking is unique to organic life, and when human beings are not satisfied with inventing tools and making them mechanical or machines, they also endow them with the imagination and experimentation of intelligent operation.

The intelligence of machines has made inorganic electronic objects digital derivatives of organic life, while possessing an infinite capacity for functioning and precision beyond that of the living organisms themselves. They are gradually becoming the executors of modern labour and are infiltrating into the daily lives of human beings. Some are placed in urban buildings for real-time monitoring of the environment; some are used in home environments to complete repetitive labour, such as sweeping robots; some are hidden in the jungle and mountains, through the camera’s intelligent visual recognition and mobile communication, detecting and recording pandas infested in the mountains, so that mankind can further carry out the protection of rare animals; and others are scattered in the wheat fields, to the growth of crops, temperature, humidity, light, water, and other factors. There are also cameras scattered among wheat fields to detect temperature and humidity, light, water and other data in real time, so as to carry out accurate farm management and realise intelligent agriculture.

Back to the scope of art’s vision, artificial intelligence AI generation and machine learning ML have long been popular technical means for digital art creation, especially the use of GAN generative adversarial networks and AI chatbots in recent years. In contrast, intelligent sensing technology connects nature, machines and people in a silent way, becoming the hub of the work. In Wu Ziyang’s work, Internet Ecosystem, environmental data collected by robots and sensors in Nokia’s Bell Labs is used to power a three-dimensional virtual environment. Electricity/batteries = sustenance, WIFI signals = nutrition, LIDAR data = fire/heat. In a networked ecosystem, natural phenomena are replaced by digital and artificial systems as the forces that drive functioning.
On the other hand, as tiny hardware devices, smart sensing enables lightweight creations.In César Escudero Andaluz’s Bitcoin Internet of Things (BoT) miner project with Martin Nadal (BSc), electronic circuits, Wi-Fi microcontrollers, and different sensors build a Bitcoin production chain. Everyday objects (such as keypads, computer mice, or cups of salt) are transformed into Bitcoin miners and connected to the blockchain in an attempt to mine blocks, while reality produces as much arithmetic power as an egg. The work reveals the physical and environmental resources spent on the computer “farms” behind the blockchain technology.Back to the scope of art’s vision, artificial intelligence AI generation and machine learning ML have long been popular technical means for digital art creation, especially the use of GAN generative adversarial networks and AI chatbots in recent years. In contrast, intelligent sensing technology connects nature, machines and people in a silent way, becoming the hub of the work. In Wu Ziyang’s work, Internet Ecosystem, environmental data collected by robots and sensors in Nokia’s Bell Labs is used to power a three-dimensional virtual environment. Electricity/batteries = sustenance, WIFI signals = nutrition, LIDAR data = fire/heat. In a networked ecosystem, natural phenomena are replaced by digital and artificial systems as the forces that drive functioning.
On the other hand, as tiny hardware devices, smart sensing enables lightweight creations.In César Escudero Andaluz’s Bitcoin Internet of Things (BoT) miner project with Martin Nadal (BSc), electronic circuits, Wi-Fi microcontrollers, and different sensors build a Bitcoin production chain. Everyday objects (such as keypads, computer mice, or cups of salt) are transformed into Bitcoin miners and connected to the blockchain in an attempt to mine blocks, while reality produces as much arithmetic power as an egg. The work reveals the physical and environmental resources spent on the computer “farms” behind the blockchain technology.

The persistence of epidemics has led us to pay more attention to natural disasters and energy crises. Artists, as creative members of society, cannot change or stop everything from happening, but through their creativity they can raise awareness of the issues, provide emotional healing, and promote action in different areas.