New means of visualizing large volumes of news information for creative purposes are currently being explored and developed in this summer’s artist-start-up collaboration as part of the JECT-SENSE project. The project has seen some intense interdisciplinary collaborations between media artist Antoni Rayzhekov, the JECT.AI start-up led by Prof. Neil Maiden and Dr. Konstantinos Zachos, and curator Dr. Claudia Schnugg. These collaborations have produced multiple results. Some of these are new and interactive 2D and 3D visualizations of published news landscapes that journalists can interrogate interactively to enhance their creative thinking. Another is a new artwork called Fragile Perspectives, which renders selected news landscapes as integrated glass sculptures and sonifications orchestrated into a sound-landscape.
Interactive 2D and 3D visualizations of news
The JECT.AI product harvests vast amounts of news information daily. Therefore, key challenges that the team faced were how to discover, retrieve and analyse large volumes of news written in different styles, formats and even languages, quickly and accurately. Every news article can be understood as a complex multi-dimensional entity that encodes its title, topics, language, news outlet, place where it is published, and sentiment. After considerable experimentation, the JECT-SENSE solution was the insertion of new reasoning capabilities that applied selected forms of time-framing and machine-learning to news content in the JECT.AI product. These capabilities enabled JECT-SENSE to reduce complex multidimensional news information into 2D and 3D images that are easier for journalists to exploit in their work.
The Fragile Perspectives artwork
Whilst the new extensions to the JECT.AI product were relatively straightforward, the Fragile Perspectives artwork combined glass, metal, and sound, which vibrates to affect metal and glass. A joint development process produced some detailed renderings of the artwork, which required different technical solutions to implement. First prototypes of the glass pieces were produced with the team’s production partners Grand Garage in Linz, Austria, and combined traditional glass blowing techniques with 3D printed objects. The JECT-SENSE team is currently engaged in a very hands-on process with different craftspeople and a maker space to produce the artwork.
Here are you can see some first impressions and get a sneak peak into the production process:
Image 1: Envisioned Impression of Fragile Perspectives Installation (Credit: Antoni Rayzhekov and Dimiter Ovtcharov)
Video/Image 2: 360° Impression of one Fragile Perspectives Sculpture (Credit: Antoni Rayzhekov and Dimiter Ovtcharov)
Image 3: Glass blower at Grand Garage at work following the shape of the 3D printed object (Video Still, Credit: Antoni Rayzhekov)
Image 4: Metal worker at Grand Garage and Antoni Rayzhekov discussing the metal mount of the glass piece on the sculpture (Video Still, Credit: Antoni Rayzhekov)
Image 5: Metal worker at Grand Garage starting the construction of the Fragile Perspectives Sculpture (Video Still, Credit: Antoni Rayzhekov)
Refining the interactive 2D and 3D visualizations and producing the Fragile Perspective will keep the JECT-SENSE team busy in the upcoming weeks, to present all results at the final Media Futures Event on September 23rd. Check back soon for more insights into the 2D and 3D visualizations for JECT.AI and the first images of Fragile Perspective installed in a space!