What Collaboration Can Create: Interviews with the Artists and Partners from FLASHBACK 5
FLASHBACK 5 highlights five innovative collaborations that have captivated our New York audiences since 2019, with each telling a unique story about the project’s inception and development. We spoke with each of our artists and partners to understand the inspiration, mission, and collaborative process behind the cinematic experience.
Geometric Properties
with Julius Horsthuis
“When we think about awe, we think about the infinite scale of the universe. Here, we look at the fundamental fabric and laws of reality.” — Julius Horsthuis, Artist
Geometric Properties showcases artist Julius Horsthuis’ fractal art at an unprecedented scale and with a dynamic sense of experience, which he hopes to give visitors the feeling that “you’re walking through these fractal temples.”
For Julius, working with ARTECHOUSE Studio in creating Geometric Properties offered the chance to present fractal art on an 18k canvas. Taking work that was normally passively consumed on a phone or computer screen and bringing it to life through scale, alongside interactive installations diving into fractals.
The result is a contemplative, awe-inspiring universe which Julius hopes will inspire self-reflection on the fundamental fabric and laws of reality.
Every seemingly-abstract shape is actually a fractal — a self-similar shape that is an infinitely complex yet repeating pattern. Like ocean waves, lightning or seashells, Julius’ fractals feel at once completely natural and artistically imagined.
Learn more about Geometric Properties >>
Life of a Neuron
with Society for Neuroscience
“For the most part the public really doesn’t understand the neuron … this very specialized cell that’s responsible for all of the information transfer in the brain. How you see, how you feel, how you react to stress, it all starts with this single cell.” — John Morrison, PhD, Lead Scientist on Life of a Neuron
Scientist John Morrison fondly recalls a decade-long dream of being able to walk through a neuron. This was a dream initially thought to be impossible. But through intense collaboration ARTECHOUSE Studio and Society for Neuroscience, they conceived of a way to create a new kind of narrative: an artistic audiovisual experience that is at once universal in its relatability and use of non-verbal storytelling, but also created using the scan of a real human neuron.
However, this scan — a human prefrontal cortex neuron with all of its electron microscopy data intact (a highly detailed, accurate 3D rendering of a neuron) — did not exist. It was incredibly important for all involved that the Hero Neuron was a model of a real human neuron in order for it to be relatable to, in what lead scientist Dani Dumitriu, MD, PhD describes as their ultimate audience: “the public.”
Dr. Dumitriu’s team injected the extracted neuron with fluorescent dye to create the renders that ARTECHOUSE Studio ultimately used to model the “Hero Neuron.” This scientific imaging process that lives on in the vibrance of the neurons we see as the viewer throughout the cinematic experience.
The creation of Life of A Neuron was a complete marriage between scientific representation and artistic storytelling — not only the first time a human prefrontal cortex neuron can be stepped into and seen outside of a lab. “We’ve been part of the groundwork for this,” Dr. Dumitriu recalls, “and yet we are so humbled by being able to pass it on to amazing artists that can actually build this into a story.”
Dr. Morrison feels that with how ARTECHOUSE Studio crafted Life of a Neuron, it is the beginning of a new way to educate the public on neuroscience.
Learn more about Life of a Neuron >>
TRUST
with fuse*
Created with the Italian art studio fuse*, TRUST explores the concept of collective human connection through data and technology. Founded by Mattia Carretti and Luca Cannellini in 2008, fuse* is a multidisciplinary collective focused on utilizing emerging digital technologies to express complex concepts in ways accessible to diverse audiences.
fuse* has long explored natural, human, or social phenomena that seem simple on the surface but reveal deeper meanings when examined closely. With TRUST, they utilize historical data such as newspaper clippings, stock market data, and a recurrent neural network to artistically visualize the public’s level of trust over a 100 year period. TRUST invites visitors to contemplate our own behavior and connections in an age where technology often mediates relationships and trust.
For Mattia, the goal of this experience is to facilitate original critical thought about reality and existence. He noted that working with ARTECHOUSE Studio and creating for ARTECHOUSE NYC’s innovative canvas provided an ideal environment for creative freedom and technical experimentation, allowing TRUST to fully realize its ambitious vision.
Beyond the Light
with NASA
Beyond the Light is an extraordinary fusion of art and science in a story about our relationship with light — and how we use it to understand our universe — in the past, present, and speculating what might be able to discover in the future.
Bringing to life the stunning imagery captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, alongside troves of additional data they collect about our world and solar system, the exhibition demonstrates how science can inspire art. Through the creative development process, it was clear the parallels between these two disciplines: constant desire to discover and push the limits of what’s possible.
For the team behind the James Webb Space Telescope, the exhibit demonstrates both artistic interpretation and scientific discovery, allowing visitors to feel as though they are flying through the universe. In JWST project scientist Dr. Macarena Garcia Marin’s words, Beyond the Light encapsulates “the awe that every human has felt at one point just by looking at the sky and feeling small.”
Seeing the JWST images brought to life by ARTECHOUSE Studio represented more than just the period of artistic collaboration, but also the 20+ years that it took to develop and launch the telescope. But, witnessing these now-iconic images transformed into a dynamic experience offered a new way to help share science with the general public.
Learn more about Beyond the Light >>
Ase: Afro Frequencies
with Vince Fraser and ursula rucker
FLASHBACK 5 marks London-based Afrosurrealist artist Vince Fraser’s fourth collaboration with ARTECHOUSE. For Vince, what makes the partnership with ARTECHOUSE Studio so unique is the constant evolution of the work each time it takes a new stage.
Vince remarks that this collaboration has been key to mirror his own philosophy of evolution. “Evolution is the keyword as an artist. Not to stay the same, but to do new things.” The artist refers to each exhibition as an iteration, in which you see the progression from one to the other.
The artist’s collaboration with ARTECHOUSE Studio is unique in that Vince shared years of work with ARTECHOUSE Studio to translate to this new scale and medium that is projection-based art, what Vince recalls the partnership “taking his work from level 2 to level 3,” once again sharing the motif of artistic evolution.
Vince’s visuals are complemented and grounded by the soundscape of renowned poet ursula rucker. Each poem read throughout the experience, titled “The Vision of the Black Experience” was written for the visual narrative. For ursula, the cinematic experience holds strong meaning: “I worked hard on this, and I know Vince worked hard on this, and it means a lot to me because I am this.”
Learn more about ASE: Afro Frequencies >>