Instructions: How to Take Control of Hexells
At the venue, scan the QR code on the sign with your phone (or simply enter https://znah.net/hexells).
On your phone you will have 2 options to interact with Hexells –
- use sound through your phone’s mic
- use the touch screen on your phone
You have the opportunity to take control of Hexells for 10 seconds: SPEAK or SWIPE UP on your phone screen and then talk or drag your finger across the screen to make the artwork change colour and move.
When you are in control, the moving image on your phone is shared to all other screens, including the big displays and phones of everyone else interacting with Hexells right now. The number of screens you control is displayed at the top your phone screen.
Only one person has control of Hexells at a time!
Hexells does not store any personal details from your phone.
You can interact with Hexells from anywhere in the world but to see Hexells on a big screen you need to be in Leicester at one of our host venues, LCB Depot or Green Dragon Square!
Hexells will be projected in Green Dragon Square between 8.30-10.30pm each evening.
You can see a short video about the installation on our YouTube channel here.
About Hexells
Hexells is a Self-Organising System of cells that was trained to build textures using neighbour communication only. This work exposes the relation between the life of an individual cell, and the cell collective as a whole. The system is based on the Neural Cellular Automata.
The work is interactive – you can use your voice or a finger on your smartphone screen to push the cells around and change their relationships with other cells.
About Alexander Mordvintsev
Alexander Mordvintsev is an artist and a researcher working with AI and Artificial Life. In 2015 he invented the DeepDream algorithm, launching an entirely new subgenre of art using neural networks—and transforming the way we visualize them. He is currently working on self-organizing systems, exploring practical ways of designing artificial life through machine learning.
Alexander Mordvintsev received his Master’s degree in Computer Science from Saint-Petersburg ITMO University, Russia in 2010. He worked on a number of industrial projects focusing on simulation and computer vision. In 2014, he joined Google Zurich where he started working on the interpretability of Deep Learning Vision models. In 2015, he developed the DeepDream algorithm. He is currently focusing on Artificial Life and Self-Organizing Systems.
