Viral, 2019
17 viruses invade Lisbon. But they do not cause the flu. They are works of Augmented Art created by the artist Leonel Moura with the implementation of NextReality.
In this pioneer exhibition, the city becomes the great canvas of the artistic expression of the future. The virosis is technological and its effect on people is ambivalent. They cause, at the same time, fascination and fear for what it is announced. These viruses are artificial sculptures, but also symbols of the transformation of the city and, in general, of the accelerated changes that have been taking place in human culture and civilization.
The 17 viruses are spread throughout Lisbon and also in Sintra, Cascais, Ericeira, Sesimbra, and Mafra. They are stationary, can be observed from any point of view, recorded in photos and videos, and shared on social networks.
The APP “Lisboa Viral” can be freely downloaded from Google Play or Apple Store.
Voxel, 2019
Edition: CPS
Powered by: NextReality
Artificial Comet, 2014/18
Evolution, 2013
The essential of this new kind of artwork is done by machines. Your role is to start and finish the process. It may seem very important, depicted as the inspired touch, the moment of “true” creation, but in fact, it can easily be automated. We can imagine a chain of machines creating and printing continuously original sculptures without human intervention. (Actually, this is one of my projects).
Why is this interesting?
Artists have always used machines. A sharp stone in the hands of the Paleolithic man was a machine to engrave visions and launch the primordial abstract thought. The camera obscura was a machine that helped Renaissance artists to enhance realism and optical effects in their paintings. Photography, cinema, video, and computers are machines that expand perception and create new realities. But today we have machines that are more than just tools. Machines that can be creative on their own. Machines that generate novelty.
My work, with machines and robots, is an announcement of the future. The process is underway and unavoidable. It is prompted by the need and imagination when will share the planet with artificial species that are endowed with autonomy, intelligence, creativity, and consciousness. The association between man and machine is – and will keep on being for a long while –, of a symbiotic kind. Both entities have much to gain from the cooperation and, actually, once initiated, it becomes unbearable to function without it. Already today we cannot live without a cell phone or a computer.
This symbiotic relationship liberates man from archaic tasks. Machines do things better and have multitasked skills, which are very limited in humans. More importantly, recognizing machine creativity puts an end to human centrality and its putative exclusiveness in what originality is concerned.
Art is a cultural concept. As such, it did change over time and will keep on doing so. A century ago abstract art was not yet recognized. Soon we may accept machine and robot production as an original art form.
Hello World, 2013
RUR, the birth of the robot, 2010
(Rossum’s Universal Robots) written in 1920 by the Czech author Karel
Ĉapek.
The dystopian narrative and the fact that the word Robot was employed
for the first time to designate autonomous machines made the
play a classic.
In my version RUR’s robotic characters are represented by real
robots, which have a more active role in the narrative. The play also
updates the issue of the conflict between men and increasingly advanced
machines.
Three robots, Baba, Primus and Helena, move freely, talk, perform
and interact with the human actors in a fairly autonomous manner.
RUR [The Birth of the Robot] is an innovative art work that combines
science, technology and art.
The play was performed in August 2010 in São Paulo, Brazil, at the
Itaú Cultural.
Bioart, 2008
A series of works with degrading vegetables over time.
Alive, 2007
FastForward, Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
A series of boid like robots interact with visitors and themselves. When they detect movement in the room robots start moving up and down reacting to each other.
Swarm sculptures, 2000
fact, the virtual ants walk on a kind of toroidal space that can be translated in
a 3D sphere.
Peaks represent higher pheromone deposition.
Ant Algorithm, 1999