The Julius Baer NEXT Initiative artist discusses her work for Art Dubai and muses on the future of technology and art.
Canvas: What does it mean to you to work on this commission by Julius Baer and to showcase your work for the first time at Art Dubai this year?
Krista Kim: I was compelled to create Heart Space مساحة القلب by a longing to employ AI technology to unify rather than divide us. I wondered, could computing interfaced with the rhythms of our heartbeat bring more strangers into an experience of oneness? Might code be conducive to community instead of isolation?
These questions feel intensely relevant to showcase within Dubai – a cultural crossroads where breathtaking innovation intersects with ancient traditions. This city stands at the frontier between globalisation’s double edge – flows of people and ideas congregating in spectacular hubs while polarisation metastasises.
Within this landscape, I’m moved by the social tapestry woven in Dubai from a mosaic of homelands and identities. People from countless countries dwell in cooperative proximity. In this spirit, my installation attempts to model unity by having separate heartbeats synchronise when visitors touch reactive sculptures together. As biodata entwines, so too do strangers through the portal of art and technology.
Heart Space مساحة القلب explores the power of technology to connect us with each other. What drew you to this idea? How does it fit within the context of Dubai? Where does the name for this piece come from?
The name Heart Space holds a few interpretations that resonate with the artwork’s essence.
Most literally, it speaks to the physical space created through the architectural installation that visitors can enter. This AI experiential zone, enriched by reactive sound and light, comes alive based on the detected heartbeats of participants moving through it together. The contours of the piece expand and contract to mirror collective heartbeat emotional activity measured on site.
More figuratively, Heart Space also suggests the inner realm of emotional landscape and imagination accessed through creativity and vulnerability. When we share stories or synchronise biological rhythms, heart space opens between us. Lastly, as technology fuses deeper into the fabric of society, the work also questions how we might embed care within digital architecture itself. By tuning code to service emotional health alongside economics, computational connections may strengthen rather than fray communal ties.
What can you tell us about the technology used in this work?
At the core is a patented heartbeat signature AI generative system developed by Tenbeo, a pioneering technology company based in Brussels. Their team of ethical AI coders and engineers designed machine-learning algorithms specifically to translate ECG data into unique keys for digital identity, which was programming to read heartbeats in real time for the installation.
The installation gathers live heartbeat inputs from participants using ECG sensors applied when a visitor’s fingers touch receptors. This bio data feeds into Tenbeo’s neural networks, generating unique audiovisual compositions that index colour and movements based on ECG data.
AI records and responds to the group’s physiological state by orchestrating patterns of light, colour and sound in the space. We then used TouchDesigner to code the parameters for these reactive outputs based on my design’s specified parameters.
Your wider practice explores the connection between human and digital. For you, what is the nature of this connection?
We stand at the precipice of a technological revolution. Emerging innovations like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, quantum computing and the metaverse promise to radically transform society, introducing sweeping changes across economic, political and cultural domains. However, the swift pace of this disruption has also revealed unsettling fractures across social, political and economic spheres. As artists, we bear witness to how technologies shape human relationships, behaviours and consciousness in profound ways. We recognise that technological progress, while bringing immense potential, also poses risks if left unchecked by humanistic values.
It is in this context that the Techism movement emerges as a cultural response, seeking to harness these seismic technological shifts to create a more equitable and empowering future for humanity. Inspired by Marshall McLuhan’s theory that “the medium is the message”, Techism acknowledges that the tools and systems we create ultimately reinforce particular social values and structures. Therefore, the Techism Manifesto calls for the conscious, humanistic development of technology to place human needs before profit or efficiency. As Klaus Schwab articulates in his 2016 book The Fourth Industrial Revolution, we have a duty to guide innovation towards serving shared human goals such as equality, dignity and justice.
Technological advancement should enrich, not engulf, our human spirit. Artists can be instrumental in this process by bringing creativity, critical reflection and social awareness to the design of digital systems and experiences. We propose a new paradigm – one that moves away from technology that extracts value towards empowering and liberating technology that expands human capabilities.
What is the significance of gradients in your practice? Tell us about the Techism Movement, which you founded in 2014.
The gradient symbolises the digital human in a several different ways. It represents the idea of fluidity and the ability to change and adapt. In the context of AI and the metaverse, where individuals interact with each other as avatars rather than their physical bodies, the gradient suggests that these digital identities can be fluid and adaptive, changing and evolving as required.
We need to be more fluid and resilient to survive the age of accelerated change. Marshal McLuhan’s concept of ‘the global village’ also ties into this idea of fluidity, as he argued that the spread of media and technology was leading to a world where individuals could connect with each other more easily, regardless of their geographic location. In the metaverse, this idea is taken to the next level, as individuals can interact with each other regardless of their race, religion, politics or gender.
The gradient can also symbolise the idea of a transcendent culture beyond the constraints of physical reality. In the metaverse, individuals are able to come together and form communities and cultures that are not limited by the same boundaries that exist in the physical world. This transcendent culture can allow for a greater sense of connection and unity among individuals, regardless of their background or identity.
Where do you think the future of digital art is heading?
The convergence of AI, metaverse and blockchain is the future. As immersive technologies proliferate, I believe digital art will become less confined to screens, spreading experientially across the environments that we inhabit. Creative cultures already actively shape VR, AI and real-time graphics. We will be living in a metaverse of AI-powered Augmented Reality wearables very soon.
I envision a bold creative class contributing vision alongside technologists to steer these exponential shifts ethically. We require more artists contemplating how innovations interfacing intimately with body and mind could elevate rather than diminish our humanity.
Art should assert central leadership in building ethical infrastructure as AI penetrates society’s nervous system. Emerging technology is far too consequential for technologists alone to dominate the evolution of human civilisation. I see digital art fostering empathy, beauty and unity.
Heart Space مساحة القلب will debut in the Julius Baer Lounge at Art Dubai 2024.
