Random International unveils triptych “Swarm” at Scorpios Bodrum

Random International on the acquisition of Scorpios Bodrum

Post-digital art group Random-International is extending its two-decade-long pursuit of public participation with a triptych installation at the newly opened Scorpios Bodrum, perched on a hill on the Turkish coast. The artwork, titled “When Tomorrow Comes,” is housed in a cathedral-like, skylit space as part of The Ritual Space, an exclusive wellness center where hotel Guests can enjoy exciting meetings. In the room, ‘TThe overall atmosphere is like a gesture of open arms, inviting you to enter and explore. Random International co-founder Hannes Koch told Design boom.

When Tomorrow Comes is like a virtual swarm comprising different races of an evolving digital organism. Each race, originating from a generative algorithm, has different qualities and characteristics that are expressed exclusively through movement, thus forming mother herds. The interactive installation was commissioned for Scorpios’ 2024 Encounters Program and features a meditative track by Japanese composer Masahiro Hiramoto, adding a subtle sacredness to the whole thing. Collectors can also choose from three sets of 150 signed limited edition prints, each paired with a unique animation.

Image © designboom

a digital swarm with new possibilities for co-creation

For Hannes Koch, the triptych installation at Scorpios Bodrum retreat offers a method for collective ownership of public art, bringing the digital into the physical sphere by inviting viewers to interact with it in ways that open up new possibilities for co-creation while evoking an almost sentient, collective intelligence. artist adds: ‘Whatever we see in these collective movements, in these teeming, flocking algorithms, we humans tend, across cultures, to believe that there is some kind of consciousness emerging here, some life-like behavior.” On this occasion Subscribe sat down with Koch, who beautifully decoded the digital swarm, traced the studio’s fascination with flock algorithms, and reflected on the art of ritual spaces. Read the full interview below.

Image courtesy of Scorpios Bodrum

Interview with co-founder Hannes Koch

designboom (DB): Explain to us the concept behind the triptych at Scorpios Bodrum.

Hannes Koch (HK): When Tomorrow Comes is part of a larger work called Life in Our Minds. It describes the human tendency to attribute meaning to moving things and to form an emotional relationship with them because we believe them to be alive. Whatever we see in these collective movements, in these teeming, flocking algorithms, we humans tend across cultures to believe that there is a consciousness developing here, a life-like behavior, but the result is just ones and zeros. It is not alive; all the properties we attribute to it happen in our heads; our instincts and our emotional perception of the world drive this tendency. We have been fascinated by swarms and flocks in various ways for twenty years.

Aesthetically, I am fascinated by the efficiency and reduced qualities of movements in nature. The installation is self-organized. It is just a simulation of nature, but still you somehow feel a touch of that magic. Of course, you can never be as impressive as nature. I think it is a completely futile attempt; we know we will never achieve the same depth, the same quality, the same magic, but I think it is worth trying anyway, simulating these things in a way that we can control and amplify for human use.

Opening night | Image courtesy of Scorpios Bodrum

HK: That’s the broad context of the installation, so to speak – a fascination with collective behavior and all its facets and all kinds of ways. Then we focus on what happens to us as human viewers, how we open up emotionally when we believe that our counterpart is alive. We believe that this brings out our vulnerability. If something, a being, only has to move as if it were alive for us to believe that it is alive, then that makes us vulnerable. Because only if it is alive can we build a relationship with it. We open up to it. We trust it. We start to get emotionally involved with it, even if it has different goals, a completely different agenda and possibly an alien quality. And we find that super interesting; it’s neither good nor bad. It’s something we pay attention to. It fascinates us.

Beyond the decorative level—bringing color into this digital swarm, playing with it, making it visually appealing—we felt compelled to push the boundaries in a weird way. We asked ourselves: how weird can something be and still be perceived by us, the viewer, as alive or as having some form of connection? I think that’s something we’re going to explore much more as a species now, as we breed AIs that will be embedded in moving parts and pieces, in robotics, in the next ten or fifteen years. We’re already on that path, and it’s interesting to ask those questions and see what happens when something behaves naturally, in a way that’s familiar to us, and in a way that we can trust. That exploration opens the door to the vulnerability that I think is ingrained in us as humans. It’s important to go there and see what happens.

Opening night | Image courtesy of Scorpios Bodrum

DB: At the opening you compared The Ritual Space to a cathedral. Can you elaborate on this idea? And would you say that your work points to spirituality and sacredness?

HK: I think there’s a gap at the moment. This discussion about immersive art, this need to immerse ourselves in the artistic world with our whole body, is not new. Just look at the Sistine Chapel. It has nothing to do with technology. I think there’s a big misunderstanding, especially when it comes to projection, which is strange. It has much more to do with how our content is delivered.

That may not be the case in countries like Italy and Spain, but people don’t really go to cathedrals anymore. We don’t gather in those spaces. We aren’t exposed to that visual and emotional richness in our everyday lives because we lack spirituality. It’s replaced by either late-capitalist beliefs or science, or both. There’s nothing intimate and unconditional about it, not nearly as much as there used to be. I’m not nostalgic about places like cathedrals, but I think there’s a reason they’ve played a significant role in various cultures. Something in our human nature makes it essential for us to expose ourselves to such sacred places.

Image courtesy of Scorpios Bodrum

HK: Well, the form of the triptych is completely non-religious; we like to interrupt an image. It’s a basic and instinctive aesthetic choice. And when we saw The Ritual Space, we were drawn to the very interrupted ceiling through which the sky comes down. There’s something very powerful about that element. The overall atmosphere is like an open-arms gesture, inviting you to enter and explore. And we had only seen one photograph of the space. We immediately said yes, because there’s something special about presenting your work in a ritual context.

I prefer this to events like Burning Man ten times out of ten. This space is kept simple because there’s nothing to distract, and it’s a great fit for a triptych design, which gives the work a much more sculptural presence. We don’t like the flatness of projections. We prefer to bring in the human body, an inherently three-dimensional, physical presence that reflects these large, exaggerated, rear-projected screens. And the projected quality of the image is much easier on the eye. We don’t really like LCD screens, which get overly brighter the closer you get to them.