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M HKA reserves its fifth floor for surprising interventions and intimate pop-up presentations. INBOX is a place that inspires and surprises, one that offers us a glimpse into the world of passionate thinkers and doers. With INBOX, M HKA creates a physical space in which the museum addresses often-recurring questions.

In the periods between the various events, we present a selection of our collection works, with particular attention to video art.

INBOX can be visited for free.

We are still working on this page. Please check back soon for the complete overview.

Orahory reveals a series of digital entities. Each organism emerges and evolves through several data streams that are being captured live in the physical world. These data points are released within an environment that applies a set of rules to them, allowing for the creation of a visible creature or population of creatures.

This is the third iteration of the project that started in 2012. The first version, called LouisE, constituted of an interactive tablet application. A society of initial organisms feast upon the pixelcolours taken from the tablet's camera feed. Each member had a set of code, a form of digital DNA, defining behaviour, aesthetics and nutritional preferences. By generating offspring, these threads could change in the population over time. As such the camera feed would define the aesthetics, behaviour and survival of the population.

The second version was part of a larger installation called H4aC (Habitat for a Commensal) that was lead by the artist Angelo Vermeulen. The project refers to the global energy crisis and the world's technological future. The outer structure is inspired by space exploration and planetary settlement. The interior is inhabited by a digital life form 'feeding' on the energy plant. A single organism has evolved over time for several years based upon multiple datastreams.

This latest version constitutes a series of organisms that evolve over time during a single night by feeding it data from the AMPERE nightclub in Antwerp. The organisms emerge in real time by responding to a set of sensorial data that are being captured in the Ampere event space in Antwerp, Belgium. The datastreams include the amount of beer that is being poured, the amount of people residing in the men- and ladies restrooms as well as anonymous pattern tracking of the movement on the dancefloor. Furthermore there's an extensive audio analysis and some basic sensorial information such as temperature and humidity in the venue. As such, the people who are performing and visiting the location are directly, though possibly unintentionally, participating in the creation of this digital life form.

These aforementioned streams of data define the structure, textures and movement of the live generated digital entity. However; certain aspects of the organisms are influenced by its predecessors. Virtual genetic material gets inherited by every new generation of the organism.

INSTALLATION

Currently on view in Nightclub Ampere, Antwerp

EXHIBITION M HKA

Preview: Thursday 24 May – 19u

Introduction by Angelo Vermeulen (SEAD, NASA Mars)

Live coding performance by Dago Sondervan