Art made with code: DevArt by Google with the Barbican Centre launched today

LONDON.- DevArt by Google with the Barbican is launched today. This major project includes four new art commissions that form part of the Barbican’s summer exhibition Digital Revolution, 3 July – 14 September 2014.

DevArt by Google with the Barbican, explores art made with code, by developers using technology as their canvas and code as their raw materials to create innovative, interactive digital art installations. The project is designed to inspire the next generation of developers and artists by highlighting coding as a creative art form. It seeks to push the boundaries of what is possible when art and technology come together. To tell the world about DevArt, Google have created an online platform where you can follow the creative process, and watch their journey unfold—from concept and early sketches to the finished piece. It goes live on 5 February 2014.

As part of DevArt, Google are seeking to commission an up and coming developer to create a new digital art installation. The winner’s work will be showcased as part of the Barbican’s Digital Revolution exhibition, alongside newly commissioned works by some of the world’s finest interactive artists Karsten Schmidt , Zach Lieberman, and the duo Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Carnet.

DevArt Commissioned Interactive Artist.

Conrad Bodman, Curator, Digital Revolution, Barbican, said: “We are delighted to be working with Google on DevArt. Our teams have worked together to devise a series of innovative new commissions for the Digital Revolution exhibition, highlighting code as a powerful new form of creative expression.”

“The Barbican’s mission is to showcase innovative new forms of arts practice and DevArt powerfully illustrates the creative possibilities of working with code. We are delighted to be able to show the DevArt winner as part of the Digital Revolution exhibition, providing a unique opportunity for a talented creative coder.”

Steve Vranakis, Google Creative Lab Executive Creative Director, said: “DevArt is about reappraising what art is. We want to show that technology can be a canvas for creativity and that developers are also artists, using code to make art.”

“The Barbican are an incredibly progressive organisation that we’re very proud to be partnering with. They truly understand the power of digital and how art continues to evolve through technology as demonstrated through the Digital Revolution exhibition.”

You will be able to follow the creative process of all four commissioned interactive artists, including the competition winner at g.co/devart , where you can watch regular updates. By sharing their process, the artists hope to involve and inspire the wider international community of creative coders. Each will create a new installation in the DevArt space, the finale to Digital Revolution. The Barbican’s exhibition will be the biggest and most comprehensive exploration of digital creativity ever to be staged in the UK and will embark on a tour of cities all over the world.

The three commissioned developers are some of the world’s finest interactive artists: Karsten Schmidt is a London based computational designer who uses custom built software tools to help bridge the technological and social gaps between different creative fields. His Web-based co-generative tool and 3D printer Co(de)factory [working title] explores the role of authorship in art. It is a social collaboration platform designed to fulfil a multifaceted creative vision which addresses several aspects of contemporary artistic production. The project aims to bring creators together and allow them to individually and collaboratively design (and later fabricate) physical artefacts, using a set of custom developed in-browser 3D modelling tools. These works will be printed out in 3-D in the gallery and presented as part of the exhibition.

Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet are a Barcelona-based artist-duo who describe themselves as inventors and creative developers. They work with technology to create projects that explore the digital age across a number of disciplines. Their visual and gestural interactive screen-based piece Wishing Wall [working title] re-imagines how we share our innermost wishes with the world. In this piece spoken words are transformed into butterflies, diverse in form and colour as they represent the sentiment of the spoken words. The gallery visitors are invited to interact with the butterflies.

Zach Lieberman is an artist and educator who creates installations and performances investigating audio-visual expression and new forms of drawing. His immersive and interactive audio piece Play the World [working title] invites visitors to perform with a keyboard that finds samples with the same note in real-time from web radio stations from around the world, literally allowing them to play the world.

The DevArt competition seeks an idea that pushes code and technology beyond what was previously thought possible. All entries must use a blend of technologies including at least one Google technology. The final submission will be more than just a finished piece, it will inspire through the demonstration of it creative process along the way.

Steve Vranakis, Google Creative Lab Executive Creative Director, said: “What we’re looking for is how developers have used technology to create art with their code. How they’ve really pushed what is possible with all the new tools available to them and how they’ve brought to life an original idea, executed flawlessly both technically and creatively.”

In addition to the three DevArt commissioned interactive artists, the competition will be judged by Steve Vranakis, Executive Creative Director at Google Creative Lab, Paul Kinlan, Developer Advocate at Google, and Conrad Bodman, Curator of Digital Revolution exhibition at Barbican.