work
LAWKI—Sky Wells (2024-2025)
commissioned by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art (NTMoFA) for Right Where it Belongs.
LAWKI, an acronym for 'Life As We Know It,' is an interactive audiovisual installation that combines human and artificial intelligence to speculate on knowledge production in a contemporary, highly mediated world. In LAWKI, a network of unsupervised algorithms curates from thousands of online videos. Through this compositional gesture, a new story of today is broadcasted, in which reality merges with the techno-imaginative.
The script of this algorithmic cinema consists of hundreds of phrases typed by an imaginary user into the search engines of video hosting platforms. By prompting the texts, a designed algorithm scrapes from the stream of boundless data to create its unique ontology. It performs a 768-dimensional 'random walk' across the constructed categories, weaving global and local events into a cinematic narrative. Pixels stutter, strobe, and sing the quirks of life as we know it.
Instead of delivering a comprehensive image of reality, LAWKI deconstructs biases inherent to technologies and databases. The spatial installation encourages the audience to interact with the screens, thereby recalibrating how today's media environments are organized. In this walk of wonder, the viewer is not just a consumer of the cacophonic spectacle but an active co-creator of both process and outcome.
LAWKI—Sky Wells is a site-specific work developed for the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Its architectural design references courtyards in traditional houses, where wealth flows through the sky well like water from heaven. In Chinese mythology, if a carp swimming upstream of the Yellow River leaps through the Dragon Gate, an opening in rocks at the top of a waterfall, it transforms into a dragon and reaches the sky. While the tale teaches resilience and self-actualization in the pursuit of wisdom, LAWKI—Sky Wells proposes mythology and aesthetic catharsis to contest rigid knowledge regimes.
Installation view of Right Where It Belongs. Image courtesy of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.
Photo credit: Lane 216, East Production
Marginalia (2024-ongoing)
with Senka Milutinović
marginalia is an open, collaborative article annotation and publishing platform that enables contributions from collectives and individuals.
we insist on prioritizing non-linear, messy, entangled knowledge production. this kind of knowledge is full of collective input, which might include embodied knowledge, group dynamics, and modes of relating to the source that academic spaces do not find valuable or worthy. as bell hooks does, we regard the margin as a space of radical possibility.
supported by Stimuleringsfonds
WAIVE-Plugins (2024-ongoing)
in collaboration with Thunderboom Records.
a plugin suite that combines music, sound and MIDI generation with European cultural archives, including The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, BBC Sounds Effects Archive, Catalan Media Corporation and Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council. aims to be an offline, modular version of WAIVE-Studio that can be integrated into your DAW.
WAIVE-Sequencer: a rhythmic pattern generator
WAIVE-Sampler: a sample player, sample library and sample generator all in one
Avaliable for macOS, Windows and Linux in VST, CLAP and AudioUnit formats (download page).
Ecologies of Memories (2024)
in collaboration with Studio Nina van Tuikwerd
video installation with generative AI image interpolation driven by data of ecological change in the Noordhollands Duinreservaat area.
photo credit: Roosje Verschoor.
imgrow (2023-ongoing)
an experimental, audio-reactive video performace that uses natural growth siumulation for real-time video filtering. video material is distorted and skewed by the movement of growth patterns
performed on 23rd novemeber, 2023 (at Sexyland World), and 17th january, 2024 (at Noordwards) as part of a new performative yoga event by Natasha Daisy
made with openFrameworks and driven on cyclic limited aggregate diffusion.
ik en jij (2023-2024)
in collaboration with Tina Farifteh and supported by Amsterdam 4 en 5 Mai Committee.
interactive phonebooth where participants can anonymously share their emotions in response to the Isreal-Palestine war. recordings are shuffled and can be listened back through headphones outside of the booth.
on display at: Unfair '23 (16-19th november, 2023), No Limits Art Castle at Sexyland World (8th december, 2023 - 1st february, 2024) and Refresh #2 at Amsterdam Museum (17th december, 2023 - 25th february, 2024).
photography Tina Farifteh
Systems of Post-Signature Website (2023-ongoing)
Systems of Post-Signanature Radio is an experimental online radio platform that hosts discussions around art, authorship and algorithm. shows are broadcast only once, with transcript and show notes following shortly after. inbetween broadcasts however, a continuously generated conversation made from segements of previous episodes can be heard, with the listeners able to direct the voices with in the broadcast, tayloring the conversation for everyone else to hear.
developed by ARK (Roosje Klap, Elsa Casanova, Maïwenn Brochen, Arran Lyon and Teoniki Rożynek).
funded (in part) by Stimuleringsfund for Creative Industries and extend our gratitude to the Sandberg Instituut and Leiden University for their support.
Hacking Heuristics / HOTSPOT (2022-2023)
with Marlot Meyer.
immersive/participatory installation where the audiences' bio-signatures are measured and fed to an algorithm, which in turn administers a stimulation via the headsets in an attempt to put all members into a similar "state". the algorithm continuously learns from it's inputs and the bio-states that result from it's decisions, enabling a mode of sensatory listening.
sensors include: heart-rate, eye movement (ECG), gamma brain activity (EEG), skin conductivity (GSR) and touch and movement sensors. stimulations include: controllable warm/cold sensations, electric muscle stimulation, vibration, light and pneumatics.
headsets implemented in ESP32 microcontrollers, host AI runs on a central raspberry pi. visualisation created in openframeworks.
on display at MU Hybrid Arthouse (16th december, 2022 - 16th april, 2023) and Ars-Electronica (6-10th september, 2023).
photography by Marlot Meyer.
WAIVE Studio (2022)
WAIVE Studio is an AI-assisted online tool to create algorithmic dance music that repurposes and recontextulises audio samples from archival materials.
the culminated in a live performance at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) on october 19th and during Museumnacht at De Waag Future Lab on november 5th.
made in collaboration with Thunderboom Records in association with Beeld & Guild with support from Mondriaan Funds.
LAWKI Passages (2022)
the third iteration of LAWKI for the Fake It Real exhibition at the Taipei Digital Art Festival.
on display from september 30th to october 10th
photo credit: Taipei Digital Art Festival 2022
LAWKI ALIVE (Autumn, 2021)
the second interation of the installation of LAWKI (Life As We Know it), developed for MU Hybrid Arthouse in Eindhoven.
LAKWI explores the emergence of narrative through the constant stream of video content in out digital lives.
supported by Creative Industries Funds NL and Mondriaan Funds.
on display from october 15th to november 28th, 2021.
LAWKI NOW (Summer, 2021)
installation piece for Noorderlicht International Photo Festival in collaboration with ARK.
through algorithmic curation of video content and generative music, LAWKI NOW is a large-scale, adaptive live installation version of the short film LAWKI (Life As We Know It), and will resonate the current state of the world through the lens of mass-media and the ever continuous news cycle.
supported by Creative Industries Funds NL and Mondriaan Funds.
LAWKI NOW took over the space of the Aa-kerk in Groningen from august 7th to october 3rd 2021.
Actually... Let's Forget About Me. (2020)
a short film by Charlotte Gillain which explores themes of identity, isolation, and the fluidity of peronality. (experience page, vimeo)
post-production effects were acheived using artificial intelligence to learn a mapping between the performers facial features and those of a different person, allowing the morphing between the two faces.
premiered 26-28th february 2021 at the Llyod Hotel, Amsterdam, and after.
sound design (ongoing)
combining digital synthesis, audio manipulation, sampling and live instrumentation for sound design in live performances of dance, physical theater and mime.
shows:
- The Ocean, But Black. - Gerben Vaillant, november 2020
- I've made up my mind... please don't confront me with the facts. - Charlotte Gillain, february 2021
by using PureData, an open source interactive audio synthesis engine, the music and soundscapes can be directed and controlled live to respond with the performers actions, and to intigrate audio cues naturally within the mix.
abbus | A.I. Song Contest (2020)
abbus is the Dutch entry into the inaugural A.I. Song Contest, organised by the VPRO.
many facets of the song was constructed through a variety of machine learning techniques - lyrics were generated from state of the art machine language models, the melody learned from a dataset of pop and Eurovision songs, an algorithm to select the catchiest melodies optimised for the songs success, and a model capable of recreating the singers voice produced vocal harmonies. the song placed joint second after a vote from the public and panel of A.I. experts.
in collaboration with Willie Wartaal, Janne Spijkervet, John Ashley Burgoyne, Bence Halpern, Anja Volk, Iris Ren, Thijs Ratsma, Manon Blanke, Anne van Ede, Thijs Hendrickx, Otto Mättas, Yannick Gregoire, Berit Janssen and Annelies Termeer.
music video created by Hannes Andersson, Chantalla Pleiter, Vincent Bockstael, Teackele Soepboer and Ties Gijzel.
mirrorworlds.io (2019)
an interactive multiplayer online game, where players seek and search out the objects found by their competitors. (video)
developed with Roos Groothuizen during her residency at the Rathenau Instituut.
created using React.js, with Express and RethinkDB backend.
vNine | Concert in A.I. (2019)
a new musical algorithm created for a theatrical production Concert in A.I. (motherboard article)
collaboration with Telemagic, Valentin Vogelmann and Mrinalini Luthra.
upcoming shows:
- TBA 2021 - Felix Meritis, Amsterdam, NL
past shows:
- 25 apr 2019 - Theater Frascati, Amsterdam, NL
- 17 + 18 aug 2019 - Pukkelpop Festival, Hasselt, BE
- 20 sep 2019 - Graphic Matters, Breda, NL
- 07 feb 2020 - TEC ART Festival, Rotterdam, NL
development of vNine was supported by SIDN Fonds. Concert in A.I. is a co-production with Frascati Producties and supported by the AFK
musAIc (2019)
software for human interaction with musical algorithms. (github)
created for musicians and artists to have creative control and freedom to collaborate with a generative A.I. in a familiar, DAW-like interface.
built in python and Qt5.
research
Musical Genre/Style Bender (2022)
research into methods of musical style transfer of raw audio input.
musical characteristics such as rhythm, key and tembre are manipulated on an input track to match those of a target muscial style.
in collaboration with Thunderboom Records and Valentin Vogelmann
The Music Emerges (masters thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2020)
a naturally occurring auditory illusion of repeated non-musical sounds may reveal the inner workings on how humans cognise and classify audio as becoming musical.
research done under the supervision of Dr Makiko Sadakata.
(publications, materials and code coming soon)
about
arran lyon is a multi-disciplinary coder who collaborates with artists, designers, performers and musicians to create interactive, immersive and dynamic installations, productions and performances through the intersection of art, sound, technology and algorithm. by bringing criticality and knowledge of the latest technologies, he works with creators to develop new practices and tools in storytelling and communication through open-source software and hacked hardware.
with a background in computational science (MSc, University of Amsterdam 2020), he utilises scientific and technical expertise along with research practice to explore the possibilities of bridging disparate modes of inquiry through technology, enabling new artistic potentials and symbiosis.
he is currently a member of the ARK design collective, and is the former coding tutor in the first year of the Graphic Design studies at Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (KABK) in The Hague (NL).
image courtesy of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. photo credit: Lane 216, East Production