A new installation by Italian digital artist Andrea Bonaceto is lighting up a store on Oxford Street – and inviting you to interact with it, with your fingertips.
This digital exhibition, titled ‘AB Infinite 1’, now glides over Flannels’ flagship store via an 8k (yes, 8k) resolution screen. Much of the piece is Andrea’s own work, but pockets of space are pieced together through an AI algorithm, which takes viewer’s interactions and uploads them onto the work.
Passers-by are invited to register their social media handles via the programme’s website (for GDPR purposes as much as anything else), before sharing photos with the #abinfinite1. The AI algorithm then takes the images that have the most consistent colour palette with the rest of the work.
As a result, the work evolves throughout the day, slowly morphing with every images it selects from the public – a living work, so to speak, that reflects the images sent in from the public.
The piece also switches to show digital portraits of a multitude of faces, including Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter whose first tweet was sold for an initial $2.9 million (£2.3 million) before failing to get beyond the £11,500 mark at auction earlier this month.
Other digital faces include those close to Bonaceto, such as his parents and his girlfriend.
‘AB Infinite 1’s’ interactive element is seen as an attempt to engage more people with digital art – a sphere which has not only seen volatility in recent weeks, but many have also struggled to wrap their heads around.
Its positioning in London’s busy Oxford Street, for the next two weeks, will enable it to be seen by more than an estimated 50,000 people daily. This is before it goes on tour of some of the world’s major museums, including in China, the UAE and Bonaceto’s home, Italy.
‘AB Infinite 1’ will also be auctioned by a major auction house, which is yet to be announced, once the tour has concluded. The project is in collaboration with W1 Curates.
