Ali Phi

QAL

2017 - 2018

Interactive Audiovisual Installation

QAL, The anti-carpet, is an interactive generative audiovisual installation exploring environmental design in futuristic architecture with roots in old motifs.
The initial idea of this project was to make a connection between ancient art concepts and link them with a new design objective in the form of installation or art piece. The key elements were Persian carpet which was the consequence of the idea of an earthly paradise spread through Persian literature from the time of the Achaemenid Dynasty. As the word expresses, such gardens would have been enclosed. The ideology's purpose was, to provide a place for protected relaxation in a variety of manners: spiritual, and leisurely.

A Persian carpet was made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes, for home use, local sale, and export.
#persian_carpet
A Persian carpet, made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes, produced in Iran and surrounding areas which once belonged to the Persian Empire, for home use, local sale, and export.
#persian_garden
The tradition and style of garden design represented by Persian gardens have influenced the design of gardens from Andalusia to India and beyond.

This Project was trying to make a new way of knitting carpets with help of technology and artificial intelligence to reach a new format and process of producing this context and let the creativity and interaction of humans merge into the process of creation of the artwork and have a direct effect on it. In contrast with traditional carpet, "QAL" is not a single pattern, it is so mortal which dies in less than a second and it is very easy to create by the motion of hands in real-time affected by light. The patterns form on a transparent vertical screen as a carpet loom with a light source in front which projects white light toward the hands of audiences and starts to generate patterns made by their movements, looking at their hands and remaking the motion in digital space through the computer visionary. After working with this AI-driven patch which is programmed and designed by the artist, some of the patterns were captured and were sent through the rendering process to reach a higher DPI & resolution being ready to be printed on different materials which the canvas was the first option.

Examples of visual designs made by the interactive installation for solo show entitled "LAND" Prints on canvas 100x200 cm & on paper 29x21 cm

The results were new physical carpets with a lot of details in a very high dpi which were the outcome of human interaction and computer errors forming a pattern that can not be created easily through common software. Because of the countless possibilities of different parameters such as the amount of light in space, size & position of hands & color of skins, the patterns are unique and it is almost impossible to create the same one.
In the new phase of this project, the new patterns have been generated by the artist & have been printed on transparent textile as a post-level of interaction in the artistic process, the users, artists or designers can use these pieces which are unique & different in design individually, to create their own way of usage like as wearable or material for upcoming personal art & design projects and make new creative usage based on the old idea of a cover called carpet.