Remix the Archive at Alusta Space, Helsinki

“Remix the Archive” by Newyellow, Nahuel Gerth, Ilmo Kapanen and Aarni Kapanen, Blas.v, Roni Kaufman, Agoston Nagy, Jeremy Schoenherr, Arttu Koskela, Tuomo Rainio at Alusta Space, Helsinki, 20/9/2024 – 23/11/2024.

Combine24: Remix the Archive The Combine24 generative art competition brought together global artists and creative practitioners from 47 countries, asking them to engage with the Finnish National Gallery’s copyright-free collection of over 25,000 digital art objects and associated data. A shortlisting committee chose a selection of works for this exhibition, with a final Jury set to select the first prize winner and a runner-up. The third prize is selected by the public. The artworks presented at Remix the Archive engage with the collection in various ways. An examination of body, movement, and gesture leads to explorations of poses and posing through time. A disentangling of metadata may or may not unlink certain collages, only to be re-engaged into newly collaged forms. The landscape, as a site, as an entity, as a city, as a historical dwelling, is mapped, re-mapped, stitched, un-stitched, and re-configured through various digital tools. Abstract and figurative visual forms both occupy space here. But there is still room for moments of randomness and chaos, explorations into the laws of science and numbers. The result is part of an evolving conversation about the role of technology in art. This is particularly true for generative art, which exists at the intersection of human creativity and mechanistic processes. As you hurtle towards the end of the exhibition, the generative should take on new meaning. One that may indeed be automated, but automated from within multiple seats of consciousness, extending beyond the duality of input and output alone, blurring the lines between technology and human consciousness.