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Art meets AI in a tangible exploration of global climate data in Edinburgh Science Festival Exhibition

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The New Real brings a new project to the Edinburgh Science Festival this year with The New Real Observatory – an interactive climate AI platform for artists. The first output of the platform is featured in an exhibition, The Overlay, by artist Ines Camera Leret.

The New Real brings a new project to the Edinburgh Science Festival this year with The New Real Observatory – an interactive climate AI platform for artists. The first output of the platform is featured in an exhibition, The Overlay, by artist Ines Camera Leret.

Exhibition launch

Connect to an alternative reality of the climate crisis, in The Overlay artist Inés Cámara Leret explores the entanglements that arise when attempting to make global climate data tangible. Her film reflects critically and playfully on the gaps that occur when attempting to reconcile global narratives with local environments.

The work has created a new colour calculated by an AI that has been trained to identify a specific hue that lies in between greenery and built environments. The film follows attempts at making this hue tangible locally and the complexities that arise in doing so.

Art, technology and climate

The Overlay explores the impact of technology in both enabling and hindering our understanding of, and relationship with, the current ecological crisis. The film will play across multiple screens, visible from street level and is free and open to public.

London and Madrid based artist Inés Cámara Leret is inspired by the transformative nature of materials, the methodologies used to understand these and the relations that arise. Cámara Leret works across disciplines and nurtures long-term collaborations that create expanded networks and bridge traditional and academic ways of knowing.

Reflecting on the launch, Camara Lerat said: “I’m really excited to share my first moving image work. The Overlay explores the liminal states between experiences, beliefs, feelings and thoughts, within the current climate context.”

Edinburgh Science Festival collaboration

This exhibition is the first of five artistic responses from artists working with The New Real Observatory platform. The platform launched last month at AIUK and the public exhibition is part of the Edinburgh Science Festival this year.

The New Real Observatory (TNRO) is an experiential AI system produced collaboratively between artists and data scientists from Edinburgh Futures Institute, Edinburgh University School of Informatics, EPCC and Edinburgh College of Art.

Working with the TNR Observatory, science & technology team member Daga Panas said:

“‘There is a true playful spirit of inquiry in this, and an interplay between following the logic of technology – and questioning it and submitting to the logic of art.”

‘TNRO’ invites leading digital artists to experiment with environmental datasets, climate models and processing pipelines to fuel a new generation of technology-conscious aesthetics situated in connection with land, water, air and energy.

Drop in sessions with the artist and research team

The exhibition runs at Inspace, Friday 22 April until Sunday 24 April from 10am to 5pm. Admission is free.

In addition, there will be three drop-in sessions on the Saturday 23 April. Come along and meet the artist and The New Real team, chat about the work and ask questions about the project. These sessions are also free but must be booked in advance.

Book a ticket for Saturday sessions { https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-overlay-edinburgh-science-festival-drop-in-sessions-tickets-315727398147 }

Explore the Science Festival https://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/event-details/the-overlay

Find out more about The New Real project and the Observatory platform https://newreal.cc/about

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