SIGGRAPH 2024 celebrates more than 50 years as it heads to technological and creative hub, Denver, Colorado, home of the event’s inaugural 1974 edition. The 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH runs July 28 – August 1 at the Colorado Convention Center.
This year’s event showcases the latest in the computer graphics industry with the Art Gallery and Art Papers program, which displays the meeting of art and technology, advancements of art, language, and contemporary media art.
The Art Gallery will examine contemporary media art culture with varied practices ranging from craft to design and installation, software, hardware, mixed media, sound, and others. The conference theme, “Beyond Words: Transcending Language,” invites artists to present projects highlighting innovative approaches to language and technology, along with their unique artistic perspectives.
“We wanted to rethink the relationship between art, technology, language, and culture — reconsidering it through the latest developments and AI technology, which is becoming more and more dominant in our everyday lives with large language models,” said SIGGRAPH 2024 Art Gallery co-chair Dr. Şölen Kiratli. “And, of course, language is important because it’s the foundation of our entire culture. It shapes how we think and interact with the world. It’s allowing us to open new windows and critical discussions while giving opportunities for artists to create new expressions, explorations, and experiences.”
The conference has set the Art Gallery to acknowledge “that the essence of language is at the heart of human culture.” It takes attendees on a journey through the evolution of language technology in creative expression and broader societal dialogues. SIGGRAPH 2024 sees “that the harnessing of human language on an unprecedented scale is exemplified by large language models (LLMs),” a technological advancement that signifies not only a significant leap in AI capabilities but also deeper integration of machines into linguistic, visual, and cultural environments.
“We’re looking at language as a technology, both human and machine technology,” added SIGGRAPH 2024 Art Gallery co-chair Mohu Moruti. “We aim to get a different sense of the concept beyond the devices we usually put on the market. This means making connections to technology through cultural and philosophical means, inviting artists to bring their perceptions of media arts and unique engagement with technology. In other words, transcending limits and boundaries to achieve a diverse yet cohesive media arts representation.”
The SIGGRAPH 2024 Art Gallery notes “it takes a comprehensive approach to language that extends beyond verbal communication alone. Language is defined as any structured and symbolic system used to convey meaning, encompassing words, signs, symbols, images, and other nonverbal cues.”
Artists whose work spans the realms of art, design, technology, and research can contribute to this crucial exploration with their creative practices. This year, 188 artist submissions were received and 12 of those projects will be featured in the exhibit.
“We believe that the Art Gallery has a unique position within the conference, which is much needed within this large industry and community,” noted Dr. Kiratli. “Since art does not have the mission to be a mass commodity, it is less entangled with capitalistic and market-driven agendas. Many of the artworks the jury carefully picked for the Art Gallery are highly critical, some posing uncomfortable questions about the ramifications of the technologies that we create that ultimately shape humanity.”
While the Art Gallery serves as an interactive installation, SIGGRAPH Art Papers is a leading venue to publish critical findings within these diverse fields of art practices where they converge on screen, through interactive methods, and within digital, mechanical, or biological interfaces. Papers selected for the program are published in The Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (PACMCGIT).
The Art Papers critically explore contemporary media art culture, spanning practices from craft to mixed media, and algorithmically generated content. In the transition from visual to acoustic spaces, new methods and questions are important to understand the impact of algorithmic advancements on media art. The program publishes insights into how diverse practices intersect and evolve within digital, mechanical, and biological interfaces, under the constraints of our networked, planetary environment.
More information about SIGGRAPH 2024 is available here. In addition, check out the ACM SIGGRAPH Blog and SIGGRAPH Spotlight Podcast, which includes interviews with Dr. Kiratli and Moruti as well as SIGGRAPH 2024 Art Papers chair August Black.
Source: SIGGRAPH 2024
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.