The New Normal

A generative video work by Arne Eigenfeldt
September 28 – October 9, 2021 | GCA Lobby | FREE

The SCA's Arne Eigenfeldt is presenting his generative video work The New Normal on the screen array in the lobby of SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. New video recordings will the added during the run, enlarging the resources for the generative process. Here's how Eigenfeldt describes the work and the system behind it:

A new generative work – a system which produces new material each time it is run – commenting on what could be the new normal for artmaking.

Musicians have contributed video recordings of themselves playing a chromatic scale; movement artists have contributed sequences of short movement videos. Friends have contributed videos of themselves on Zoom.

The system generates a new melody, counter melody, and chord progression based upon machine learning of a curated corpus of music.

With each generation, the system selects player’s videos to play the generated parts based upon available notes; a second pass is made to correct problems of doublings and orchestration. Two movement videos, pre-segmented based upon unique movement aspects, are assigned to specific notes. The first section presents “Zoomers”, randomly selected from a database of contributed videos, building a 4×4 video grid.

In this latest version, processing increases on the movers during the second section, and their videos expand out of their “Zoom” boxes; performer videos begin to slide toward the centre while their images slowly become “shadows” of their former selves; Zoomers fade to black and white and recede further and further into the blackness.

Sample an iteration here:

The SCA's Arne Eigenfeldt discusses his generative video work, The New Normal, presented on the lobby screen array in SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, from September 28 – October 9, 2021.

Video by Joseph Malbon.