Supporting the the youngest generation of Czech visual artists and author collectives has always been our missione. So far we have helped to create more than 90 unique installations and we are certainly not stopping. That’s why this year, for the second time, we have announced the NEON Award for students of secondary and higher art schools together with Pražská plynárenská, which aims to support innovative art projects focused on contemporary digital technologies, animation, motion design or 3D animation. “The NEON Award is an opportunity for us to show that Pražská plynárenská is part of Prague, that as a company owned by the city we care and are also interested in the quality of life in our city,” adds the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pražská plynárenská, a.s. Martin Pacovský.
The jury was most impressed by Julie Dítětová, a graduate of the Design and Digital Technology studio at the UMPRUM in Prague, with her master’s thesis Programming Patterns, which offers a visually captivating database of machine-generated patterns of 18th century ecclesiastical fabrics. Among other promising artists, according to the jury David Kořínek (artist, educator and curator), Marika Kupková (curator and theorist) and Daniel Burda (Signal Festival program coordinator), the winner stands out especially for the formal sophistication of her work and her interesting insight into the functionality of machine learning, which contributes to the understanding of this technology.
Programming Patterns consists of a visually captivating database of patterns. Their generation begins with the creation of a dataset from the original motifs present on the fabrics. This is followed by a machine process in which the neural network defines the visual elements. These serve as the basis for new (synthetic) outputs, creating the most reliable imitations of the original patterns. The creation of the dataset is an authorial element, i.e. a work of human creativity that has a major influence on the form of the final output. This principle is a metaphor for the entire Programming Patterns project, which started with a static archive of real fabrics, and whose output is a system capable of generating countless original virtual patterns in a short time.
The winning work of the NEON Award can be seen as one of the public installations during the festival in Prague’s Klementinum on October 13 – 16. The other 6 unique works will be on display only with a Signal Plus or Signal VIP. By purchasing them you will support this year’s winner and other young artists who will present their unique audiovisual works.