Automatiste - A browser-based artwork at London Fashion Week — Operator

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Ania Catherine & Dejha Ti created “Automatiste”, a browser-based and AR/XR digital artwork which showcased Mithridate's AW21 collection at London Fashion Week.

The artists derived their title from the French adjective that describes the Surrealist Automatism method for creating art in which you don’t consciously choose what you are doing; instead you create without thought to see what arises from your deepest self. The experimental website hosts a journey of free association through the protagonist's subconscious innerworkings, dreams, memories and non-memories. The audience-participant encounters a generative non-linear narrative that weaves live action footage, 3D worlds, machine learning interpretations of the collection, performance art, portals to an immersive 360 lookbook, real-time poetry, sound, discoverable QR codes and smartphone AR/XR filters for further immersion.

Automatic processes and chance operations were utilized in the creation of the work—largely by building systems of trust with the machine and relying on it as an active collaborator. What looks like abstract moving and still paintings are GANs which are created by inputting collection images into machine learning models. AR/XR filters are discoverable by rotating 3d objects. One filter transports the guest into the protagonist’s 360 darkroom, another allows one to wear the GAN lookbook iteration on their face. Live action footage rendered through the AR/XR filters created unexpected footage results, 360 CGI immersive environments allow guests to freely navigate distant worlds. 3D/2D scenes were carefully architected, sometimes mixed with live action footage. It's ambiguous whether the imagery is created by a computer, humans, or both.

The spirit of automatic art extends to the interactive design as there are innumerable video and real-time subtitle pairings and sequences. Game theory is applied to aspects of the experience (tokens, portals, limited time in certain spaces). Subject to the machine’s subconscious—the memories unfold differently every time; you can never experience “Automatiste” the same way twice. Also, like life, there is no Back button.

“Automatiste” was featured in BBC Click, FAD Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar UK, Electronic Beats, Twin Magazine and the Contemporary and Digital Art Fair.