The Curved Horizon. The Rothko Lift
“The Curved Horizon. The Rothko Lift” is a virtual sculpture by Gints Gabrāns that is going to be visible throughout Daugavpils from 20 November with the SAN augmented reality mobile app.
The central axis of the sculpture is Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre – a distinct vertical element that shoots 45 kilometres into the air and is visible from all over Daugavpils within a 10 km radius. As such, it can serve as a compass or landmark for pinpointing the location of the Rothko Centre in the urban landscape.
Within a 100-metre radius of the Rothko Centre, the app activates a virtual lift into the stratosphere, and the viewpoint of the spectator begins to rise above the Rothko centre and the entire city. It finally stops in the stratosphere, fifty kilometres above the ground, enabling the user to see the earth from above, with a curved horizon.
Around central axis (the cosmic Rothko Lift) dance virtual spirals of artistic compositions generated by artificial intelligence and inspired by key motifs from Rothko’s paintings. The effect has been achieved by training the neural network through feeding it images of Rothko’s paintings.
In the stratosphere, “the Rothko Lift” stops at a round, transparent orbital gallery featuring special paintings generated by artificial intelligence.
Author: Gints Gabrāns;
Music: Platons Buravickis;
AR Animation: Aldis Kopštāls;
3D atmosphere/light: Mārtiņš Upītis.
The object was supported by the Public Art Programme KOPĀ (TOGETHER). The programme is implemented by Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art in cooperation with Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre and funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.
Download the app: www.san.lv
