Art & AI
Rivers are powerful forces that help shape the landscapes that they wind through. Over time, their imprint on the landscapes that surround them has a huge impact on them – and it is through such insights that artists can capture the very natural essence of rivers, meandering and winding through the Earth’s surface.
'Meandering' is a term often associated with aimless wandering. However, in the context of rivers, these dynamic, delicate, yet powerful systems are able to change the landscape constantly, even if it is indiscernible to the naked human eye. Over time, river structures evolve as water shapes the land, creating riverbeds and transporting soil to new areas. These natural processes influence the colour formations seen in the landscape over long periods of time, sometimes even decades, and vary based on the soil's hue and composition.
In our collaboration with onformative, KLING KLANG KLONG added an emotional depth to this academic and scientific research, translating the data into an immersive audiovisual installation, and allowing the audience to see the phenomenon through a bird's eye view. This experience aims to create a picturesque interpretation of these rivers over time using bespoke algorithms that emphasise their undulating motion, complemented by musical scores composed in collaboration with AI in our studio.
Back in 2018, when KLING KLANG KLONG worked on the Meandering River project. They utilised Google’s Magenta Performance RNN learning model and a custom-built procedural system; the music composition unfolds with soft, playful elements and crescendoing variations that try to echo the generated rhythmic visuals. While this approach is different to the way that neural networks work today, we took on a creative approach to the coding for this time.
The Klongs used six different visual sceneries as dynamic graphic scores provided from onformative, to which piano players improvised to for each scene. The range of interpretations worked as a large set of phrases for the AI to learn from. Each visual scene was combined with an event layer that reacts to sudden changes in the curve formation of the rivers, and in doing so, the AI created its own interpretation of the visuals musically.
You can watch this captivating fusion of sound and visuals in action here.
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Through the synergy of sound and visuals, viewers are invited to contemplate the profound connection between climate, time, and the meandering paths of rivers on our Earth's surface. When the Klongs initially took the chance to collaborate on this experiment with onformative for the first time, we decided to work with AI and see for ourselves what the artistic potential of this technology could be. As the dynamic patterns of ‘Meandering River’ unfold, and the music expresses these various natural moods and dynamics of the visual scenery, viewers are left with a profound appreciation for the ever-changing nature of our environment and the beauty it holds.
Influenced by the thorough research done into academic and scientific studies on river behaviour, they developed a musical algorithm to musically-simulate the dynamic movements of these rivers. These algorithms reinterpreted the organic shapes, rhythmic patterns, and visual characteristics of how rivers flow, providing a comprehensive understanding of their ever-changing nature.
The music score brought an emotional depth to the visual aesthetic provided by onformative. The AI soundscape was developed to mesmerise the movements. Values outputted directly from the river simulation were analysed and interpreted in real-time from the river simulation, and the music changed accordingly to each curve, length and formation to fit what was happening on screen. The result is a collection of musical scores, each tailored to its corresponding visual aesthetic.
In the end, the artwork consisted of six distinct visuals, each paired with a unique musical composition. Viewers were invited to contemplate the profound beauty and complexity of nature, reinforcing the awe-inspiring importance of preserving our planet for generations to come by showcasing the intricate beauty of the meandering rivers that are shaping our planet.
