S+T+ARTS in the City | Artists-in-Residence
Studio Above&Below | Regenerative Symphony
+ About Regenerative Symphony
Regenerative Symphony is an interactive immersive installation investigating the desirable future of critical minerals, which are rare essential building blocks of emerging technologies. The project utilises synthetic and natural material data through a custom AI model for regenerative purposes, imagining a future between 2030-2050 in which humankind is purely dependent on recycling critical minerals, rather than extracting them from the landscape, challenging the current extreme difficulty of recycling critical minerals on a social and microscopic level. The project output in the form of a generative projection focuses on revealing the beauty of reuse through the metaphor of sound symphonies, manifested as immersive audiovisual canvases which can be adjusted by visitors through predictive future data of material resources via parameters on an iPad.
The prototype is based on an AI model which reuses Rare Earth elements, rather than extracting more from the landscape. This includes working with available material data (statistics), predictive synthetic materials and predictive market data for the timeframe of 2030-2050, based on a society in which reuse is introduced by law in order to produce new electronic devices.
The residency of Studio Above&Below exemplifies cross-fertilization, collaboration, and mutual influence between artists and scientists, aimed at better understanding and studying natural and economic phenomena related to environmental sustainability. The final result reflects the duo’s distinct aesthetic and poetic sensibility.
+ Artist
Studio Above&Below is a London based art and technology practice founded by Daria Jelonek (DE) and Perry-James Sugden (GB) after graduating from the Royal College of Art. Their work combines Mixed Realities experiences (XR), digital art and data in order to grow potential connections between humans, machines and the environment – working towards preferred future interactions with our surroundings. Believing in research-based art, Studio Above&Below often works with science, technology, communities and ecologies to push the boundaries of digital media for future living. Established in 2018, over the last years the duo has created groundbreaking large-scale public artworks using advanced technologies with live data inputs in order to make invisible phenomena visible and give our environment a voice to express itself.
+ Video Statement
+ Credits
The artists collaborated with a diverse group of scientists from Area Science Park in Trieste, who specialized in data analysis, simulations, microscopy, and market research. These experts played a key role in grounding the artists’ research and development on critical minerals and recycling. Regular meetings with scientists were held to develop a bespoke AI model tailored to the project’s specific needs. In the lab, scientists working at the atomic level of materials helped the artists understand the complexities of recycling critical minerals, while also explaining the differences between elements, rare earth elements, critical minerals, and critical materials. Additionally, data experts guided the artists in building an AI model specifically designed to meet the project’s objectives.
This project has been developed in the context of the S+T+ARTS in the City project. S+T+ARTS in the City has received funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No. LC-01984766.
S+T+ARTS in the City is funded by the European Union under grant agreement LC-01984766 under the STARTS – Science, Technology and Arts initiative of DG CNECT. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or DG CNECT. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
