With Edinburgh’s summer festivals in full swing this August, we invite you to visit our current digital exhibition at Edinburgh Futures Institute: a digital installation created from anonymised data collected visitors who move through our building.
The Marks Left Behind is an algorithmic artwork by artist Dave Bowes (who also works under the name Great Snakes AV).
The exhibition is co-commissioned by Aberdeen Performing Arts and New Media Scotland’s Alt-w Fund with investment from Creative Scotland and the University of Edinburgh.
The Marks Left Behind uses data collected from interactions in the building, transforming passing moments into a living artwork and creating a composition that is entirely unique each day.
The LED wall captures anonymised data generated by visitors as they move through the building, in this way collecting the “hidden history” of people who pass through the building and the marks they leave behind.
While algorithmic in its operation, the work is shaped not by artificial intelligence or pre-determined mathematical systems alone, but by the collective presence of the building’s occupants.
The exhibition’s viewers contribute to the work, becoming co-authors of its continually changing form.
Leave your mark at Edinburgh Futures Institute by viewing The Marks Left Behind, on display from August to September 2026 at our large digital screen on Level 2.
