2018 Winners

Alter is a robot developed for the purpose of exploring what it means to be “life-like.” Alter appears to be a machine that has been stripped bare. However, it expresses life-likeness through complex movements. These movements may look haphazard, but change constantly due to the underlying algorithm that mimics the logic of neural circuits of…

Commissioned to work with SALT Research collections, artist Refik Anadol employed machine learning algorithms to search and sort relations among 1,700,000 documents. Interactions of the multidimensional data found in the archives are, in turn, translated into an immersive media installation.

We made clothes using the system DeepWear through a series of designs, such as design by deep learning, patterning by patterners, and creation of costumes. With this DeepWear, it is possible to inherit the design in clothing without depending on the designer.

The Digital Shaman Project proposes a new mode of mourning in keeping with the technical advances of today.

GreenCake Blocks are high-quality, low-cost, and environmentally friendly bricks made out of ash and rubble from the demolished houses in Gaza.

NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism is a transmedia exploration told through speculative product design, emerging technologies, cognitive research, and transhumanism. Created by and for women of color, Hyphen-Labs presents a multi-layered possible future that transcends the constraints of the present; a realm which The New Yorker has called “another plane of consciousness.”

In 2017 I created a custom animation tool—for myself. A tool to enable and facilitate my imagination and flow. Norman is the animation tool I’ve always wanted. Named after Norman McLaren, a visionary Canadian animator, the tool is built in JavaScript, runs in a web browser, and lets me animate naturally in 3D using VR…

Scientific research cannot exist in isolation from society. This is certainly true of renewable energy research where (at least in Australia) the imperative for environmental sustainability is frustrated by short-term economic and political demands. Off Grid responds to these issues.

Our idea is to visually depict heartbeat frequency by means of a piece of sculpture. While participants wearing headphones listen to various acoustic situations, the change of their pulse is measured by an electronic device, which sends the registered data to the sculpture, where it’s visualized with light.

Made as a series of virtual experiments, Quantum Fluctuations shows the complexity and transient nature of the most fundamental aspect of reality, the quantum world, which is impossible to observe directly.

By bringing distant voices close, radio connects people and places. Radio Garden allows listeners to explore processes of broadcasting and hearing identities across the entire globe.

Rapid Liquid Printing physically draws in 3D space within a gel suspension, and enables the creation of large-scale, customized products made of real-world materials. Compared with other techniques we believe this is the first development to combine industrial materials with extremely fast print speeds in a precisely controlled process to yield large-scale products.

The aim of this project is to discover “anima,” which could have existed, but did not exist. The word “Anima” means “life” or “soul” in Latin, and “animation” derives from this word.

As a partner robot, it never leaves the side of its master. It transforms into a vehicle that augments its master’s physical functions—motional and sensory—and travels with the master as one. It is a machine lifeform produced from the latest robotics and AI technologies fused by product design.

Dr. Greg Dunn (artist and neuroscientist) and Dr. Brian Edwards (artist and applied physicist) created Self Reflected, the world’s most complex artistic depiction of the human brain, to reveal insight into the complexity of consciousness by revolutionizing the way in which the average person thinks about the brain.

The once called Freecoin project, today renamed Social Wallet, is developed by Dyne.org Foundation as a result of 7 years of research, community co-design, and development within the works of two European projects on Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation.

VFRAME is a computer vision toolkit designed for human rights researchers and investigative journalists. It provides customized state-of-the-art tools for object detection and quantification, scene classification, visual search, image annotation for creating datasets, APIs to integrate with existing workflows, the ability to train new algorithms, and graphic content filtering algorithms to reduce exposure to traumatic…

Who Wants to be a Self-driving Car? is a data driven trust exercise that uses augmented reality to help people empathize with self-driving vehicle systems. We built an unconventional driving machine that lets people use real-time, three-dimensional mapping and object recognition, displayed in a virtual reality headset to navigate through space.