Superradiance **
Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter
Superradiance is a multiscreen video and sound installation that invites the viewer to extend their bodily perception beyond the skin and into the living environment. Integrating artificial intelligence with dance and insights from neuroscience, the project invokes an immersive, embodied experience that challenges us to not only understand but also feel our profound relationship with the planet.
By leveraging the cognitive phenomenon of embodied simulation—where the brain of an observer mirrors the movements of others—Superradiance creates an immersive space where participants can feel the movements of the animate Earth. This mirrors the rhythms of nature, inviting visitors to extend their bodily awareness into forests, oceans, and beyond, reminding us that the living environment is not separate from us but an integral part of who we are. Invoking dance as one of our earliest biotechnologies, the project highlights how embodied movement has long been a way to bridge the gap between self and the universe, inviting viewers into a sensory ritual of connection.
Credits
Artists: Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter
Music for Chapter 1: Memo Akten
Music for Chapter 2: Rutger Zuydervelt
Studio assistant: Milana Gorobchenko, UCSD
With research support from: Grant Deane + Dale Stokes of the Scripps Ocean-Atmosphere Research Simulator (SOARS), Charlotte Seid, Museum Scientist, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Jules Jaffe, Research Oceanographer, Scripps Institute of Oceanography
We are grateful for the support of Getty PST ART: Art & Science Collide, Stochastic Labs, the Hellman Foundation, Birch Aquarium, the Tribeca Film Festival, London Film Festival, the Digital Body Festival and the Taikang Art Museum in Beijing. We would also like to gratefully acknowledge the support of Joel Simons, Dan Hofstadter for recording space, and the Akten family and Kathy Hofstadter for contributions to the imagery.
Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter
Memo Akten is a multi-disciplinary artist, musician, and researcher creating Speculative Simulations and Data Dramatizations investigating the intricacies of human-machine entanglements. His work explores perception and states of consciousness; the tensions between ecology, technology, science and spirituality; and for more than a decade he’s been working with Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and our Collective Consciousness as scraped by the Internet, to reflect on the human condition. He writes code and uses algorithmic / data-driven design and aesthetics to create moving images, sounds, large-scale responsive installations and performances. He holds a PhD from Goldsmiths University of London, specializing in artistic and creative applications of Artificial Intelligence, and he is currently Assistant Professor of Computational Art at University of California San Diego (UCSD).
Katie Peyton Hofstadter is a Los Angeles-based writer, artist and curator. She has co-founded several international art campaigns, including ARORA, a network of over 70 artists creating new AR monuments to diverse female and gender-expansive voices in public spaces; the Climate Clock monument NYC, a global call to #actintime on the climate crisis; and Future Art Models, an experiment in prefigurative imagination commissioned by apexart, guiding young creatives to design alternative professional models in the arts. As a writer, she is a contributor to Flash Art, The Believer, BOMB, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and Right Click Save. Her work has been featured in publications including the New York Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, Hyperallergic and ArtFCity. Her writing has been curated into exhibitions at EPOCH.GALLERY, Vellum/LA and Cal Poly + The Center for Expressive Technologies. She has taught at Parsons, The New School, and F.I.T.
