When darkness falls on September 15, nearly 10,000 sparkling miniature fireworks will be installed throughout the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, transforming the historic stadium into a matrix of animated light. Working in conjunction with an artificial intelligence model, more than 1,000 drones carrying pyrotechnic products will light up the skies above and around the stadium with colorful images.
Is it art? Is it science? It turns out it’s both.
The event entitled WE ARE and developed by artist Cai Guo-Qiang, marks the official launch of Getty’s PST ART, a Southern California art initiative whose theme this year is “Art and Science Collide.” Featuring more than 800 artists and 70 exhibitions and running through February 16, this third edition of PST ART (formerly known as Pacific Standard Time) will present work exploring the intersection of art and science at cultural, scientific, and community organizations across the region.
USC, a leader in science and the arts, will play a prominent role in PST ART by hosting the opening fireworks display at the university-managed Coliseum, as well as art exhibitions at the USC Pacific Asia Museum and the USC Fisher Museum of Art.
“We are thrilled to have Cai Guo-Qiang bring his technical and artistic wizardry to the Coliseum, and we appreciate the collaboration with the Getty,” said USC President Carol Folt.
“USC Museums is hosting two major PST ART exhibitions that are marked by the spirit of university-community collaboration. We are very proud to play an important role in expanding the arts into unexplored corners of the university and promoting the arts in our community,” said Bethany Montagano, director of USC Museums.
USC moon landings aligned
PST ART comes at a time when USC is focusing on a number of “moonlighting goals” laid out by Folt, including accelerating advanced computing and expanding research into the arts in health, computing and sustainability.
“WE ARE “It’s a natural fit with USC’s moon landings,” Folt said. “It will help push the boundaries of AI and advanced computing even further and break new ground in the arts with groundbreaking technology and science – all while fostering the spirit of innovation that permeates our community.”
USC has been a hub for AI innovation for decades. Research at the USC Information Sciences Institute and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, both affiliated with the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, has shaped the development of technologies such as natural language processing and conversational AI. USC graduates have played formative roles in generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. The university’s $1 billion Frontiers of Computing initiative, launched last year, has expanded computational research in AI, machine learning and data science with ethics at its core, calling for the adoption of AI across all 23 of USC’s departments to inspire creativity, collaboration and transformation.
The recently established USC Center for Generative AI and Society—a collaboration between the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy, the USC Rossier School of Education, and USC Viterbi—fosters cross-pollination between AI and the arts. One example is the center’s AI for Media and Storytelling initiative, which explores AI-powered filmmaking, immersive environments, neural graphics, music visualization, and more.
Another example of USC’s emerging art-meets-AI ecosystem is the recent art exhibition City Ascendant: The future of LA with the help of AI. – a collaboration between the USC Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability and the School of Cinematic Arts. The show’s faculty and students used generative AI tools to create dreamlike scenes of a futuristic, environmentally conscious Los Angeles.
Cai, who designed the pyrotechnics for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, is a contemporary artist known for larger-than-life outdoor “explosion events.” In creating WE AREThe artist used an AI model he developed called cAI (pronounced “AI Cai”), which performs deep learning from his artwork, archives, and areas of interest.
The model helped Cai visit locations, research materials, plan the flight paths of the pyrotechnic drones, and implement other aspects of the creative process. Through imagery, the fireworks display will explore the relationship between humanity and AI.
Impressive exhibitions
Pyrotechnics and gunpowder have played an important role in Cai’s work over the past decades. The exhibition at the USC Pacific Asia Museum shows Cai Guo-Qiang: A Material Odyssey — part of PST ART and running from September 17 to June 15 — explores the artist’s lifelong engagement with these explosive materials, which add an element of surprise to his paintings, drawings and events. Cai will meet with interviewer and cultural mediator Paul Holdengräber at the museum on the evening of September 16 to open the exhibition with a conversation.
Based on years of research by the Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Research Institute, the exhibition will feature a wide selection of the artist’s work. Scientific imagery will also explore the nature of gunpowder, its influence on Cai’s work, and the evolution of his process. Accompanying programs A material odyssey There will be videos illustrating the making of fireworks and the process of creating gunpowder paintings, as well as interactive displays and a variety of film screenings and talks.
“We are proud to partner with the Getty and the dynamic team at Cai Studio to bring this exhibition to the USC Pacific Asia Museum,” said Montagano. “Not since the Marcel Duchamp exhibition in 1963 has a single artist taken up so much of the building’s gallery space. Cai Guo-Qiang and his incredible creative output embody the innovative work USC is doing at the frontiers of art and AI.” A material odyssey ties in seamlessly with this year’s PST ART theme of ‘Art and Science Collide’ and we are thrilled to present this historic and transformative exhibition to our community.”
Both WE ARE And A material odyssey are generously supported by USC Life Trustee Ming Hsieh and his wife Eva and USC Trustee Dominic Ng and his wife Ellen.
“Ming and Dominic – who were instrumental in USC’s decision to acquire the USC Pacific Asia Museum in 2013 – are involved in these projects on many levels,” Montagano said. “USC would not have had the opportunity to work with Cai and develop such a strong partnership with the Getty on these endeavors if Ming and Dominic had not brought these opportunities to USC. They are ardent supporters of Cai’s incredible work and artistic practice.”
Also debuting under the umbrella of PST ART is the exhibition USC Fisher Museum of Art Science Fiction, Magic, Queer LA: Sexual Science and the Imagi Nation. The exhibit is curated by ONE Archives at USC Libraries, the world’s largest repository of LGBTQ materials. The exhibit, which opened Thursday and runs through Nov. 23, explores the importance of science fiction fans and occult interests to U.S. LGBTQ history.
The exhibition at the USC Fisher Museum focuses on Los Angeles from the late 1930s to the 1960s and traces the lives of writers, publishers, and early science fiction enthusiasts as they collaborated to imagine and create their own worlds—in the form of films, photographs, music, illustrations, costumes, and writing. The program includes film screenings, panel discussions, and a Halloween cosplay event.
The exhibition is the first major collaboration between ONE Archives and the USC Fisher Museum, Montagano said. “The exhibition enriches the history of Los Angeles and shows the importance of making the stories of marginalized people visible and readable to the general public,” she said.
Man meets machine
The day after WE ARE will take place on September 16. USC will partner with Cai to host “Beyond the Human?: From the Metaphysical to the Physical,” a day-long symposium exploring the impact of AI on the arts. The symposium is co-curated by Cai and Josh Kun, USC’s vice chancellor for art, and co-sponsored by USC Visions and Voices and the USC Center for Generative AI and Society. It will feature speakers and artists from the visual arts, dance, technology, literature, architecture, film, and music, exploring questions raised by the emergence of AI. It will take place in Bovard Auditorium on the USC University Park campus.
Kun leads USC Arts Now, a new “moonshot” initiative for the arts created by Folt to foster collaboration between the health sciences, computer science and other disciplines. The initiative will draw on USC’s rich resources in creative expression, including its six professional arts schools: the USC School of Architecture, the USC Roski School of Art and Design, the USC School of Dramatic Arts, the USC Kaufman School of Dance, the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the USC Thornton School of Music.
“The symposium is USC Arts Now’s first public event and comes at just the right time,” said Kun, professor and director of intercultural communication at USC Annenberg. “As AI continues to upend our ideas about art and creativity, the symposium highlights the perspectives of leading artists and thinkers grappling with big questions: How is AI expanding the boundaries of the human? Is the definition of the artist changing in the face of advanced computing?”
Although “Beyond the Human?” is not part of PST ART, its themes fit. “Having the symposium fall on the PST ART calendar is very special—an opportunity to further explore the collisions of art and science that take place every day on university campuses,” Kun said.
The music and cultural studies scholar has curated music-related exhibitions, projects and programs for the previous two editions of PST ART, which took place in 2011 and 2017. This year, Kun organized PST ART. Quantum vibrationsthat explores the intersections of art and science through music and sound. The four-part series will take place at various venues in Los Angeles from October 4 to November 17 and will include musical meditations on nuclear research, desert biomes, and nonhuman music makers.
Kun welcomes the opportunities PST ART offers to think outside the box and explore new technologies. “It’s a perfect fit for our campus, where the arts are connecting with computer science and science in exciting new ways,” he said.
