In continuation of the WAICF organized in Cannes from April 14 to 16 and in collaboration with the Catherine Issert Gallery, the Art-Tech association is organizing an event from April 19 to 23 focused on artificial intelligence and technology.
These few days will offer a panorama of contemporary scientific and artistic experiences with Alberto Sanna, Diana Landi, Francesca Pola. The NEFFIE project exhibited at the Catherine Issert Gallery can be considered one of the most avant-garde examples in the world of Art, in terms of inclusiveness, relationships, and digital technology.
Everyone, thanks to their perspective, can become the main character of this wonderful story. Indeed, each individual perception gives birth to a unique story, which can be shared and added to others on a virtual and innovative platform.
Composed of three interconnected parts: NEFFIE, COFFIE, and NEFTIE.
The first part, NEFFIE, which is also the title of the entire project, activates the entire neuro-aesthetic mechanism. The starting point is real life itself, captured and photographed by the observer – defined as the “first author” – with a mobile camera or any other device. Each photograph is a momentary image of a totally unexpected, fascinating, and unpredictable story, which, however, is real.
The second part is called COFFIE, which stands for “Cognitive Photography.” It is essentially a totally unique and original photograph, produced by an observer and his cognitive and emotional response to one of the aforementioned Neffies. The process involves a complex technological platform where the “second author” will experience his neuro-aesthetic reaction. In practice, the observer enters a photo booth and sits in front of a screen; a technician will place biosensors and an eye-tracking device on him to examine his emotional and cognitive responses to one of the Neffie images presented on the screen.
In this experiment, an AI algorithm processes the data and, after a few minutes, the result of this processing is available in the form of another photograph – Coffie’s metapicture – which highlights the details on which the observer focused, while the rest of the image is blurred. This image is the concrete and tangible result of his neuro-aesthetic experience.
The photo booth had always been a way to take a standardized and impersonal photo of the user; Vaccari has transformed it into an artistic tool that emancipates individuals, giving each of them the opportunity to express themselves freely. If NEFFIE maintains the initial intention of Vaccari, it goes beyond thanks to new technologies.
Viewing an image is an active process that involves unconscious mechanisms based on our levels of attention, emotion and perception. Cognitive photography is the visual representation of what the observer sees and feels in front of an image. Each individual reaction is different, as everyone has their own sensibility, story and visual identity.
Thanks to science and technology, taking a photo and observing it become actions that can be shared. The last part of the visual code is therefore devoted to the social dimension of NEFFIE. All metapictures are shared on the virtual wall of the Lieu.City platform.
Indeed, the suffix “-tie” of the world NEFTIE means “tie”. In practice, each unique metapicture, owned by the individual who generated it, is linked to an NFT as a cryptographic record of ownership which is then encoded in a Blockchain.
