An International Workshop on “AI and Creative Arts”
The Center of Excellence on Art and Digital Immersion (ADI), School of Liberal Arts, IIT Jodhpur, is a novel and multidisciplinary endeavor to explore the intersection of Art and Technology. A platform to support active research and innovation on creative and performing arts using advanced AI techniques.
To spread awareness about the Center on ADI and its upcoming M.S. Program (by Research), starting from July-August, 2023, the Center organized its first and one-of-its-kind International Workshop on April 29, 2023 in the Jodhpur Club Auditorium, titled “AI and Creative Arts.” The workshop promised a captivating platform for individuals eager to venture into uncharted territories of innovative projects that merge art and technology. In addition to insightful keynote speeches, the workshop highlighted notable achievements of the faculty and students in this domain.
The workshop began with the welcome address by the Director, IIT Jodhpur followed by that by the Head, the School of Liberal Arts. With distinguished speakers - such as eminent scholar in digital museology, Professor Sarah Kenderdine of EPFL, Geneva; creative visual artist, Ms. Jenny Bhatt; and notable digital humanist, Dr. Padmini Ray Murray - the workshop brought together academics and industry practitioners exploring the creation and preservation of art and the experience of technologically-mediated art. Prof. Kenderdine’s session indicated the unlimited possibility of AI technology in immersive and interactive gallery and museum experience. Ms Jenny Bhatt’s journey as an artist and her various multimedia projects brought together both hand-drawn and digitally born artworks. Dr. Padmini Ray Murray’s talk focused on the theoretical aspect of AI-related creativity and its affordances.
A roundtable discussion exploring research and creative work of IIT Jodhpur’s faculty members was also organized. Dr. Rajendra Nagar, Dr. Parichay Patra, Dr. Manish Narwaria, Dr. Srijan Sengupta, Dr. Amit Bhardwaj, and Dr Shrutidhara Sarma (moderator) participated in this lively discussion showcasing the initiatives by IIT Jodhpur faculty in the area of visualizing art through technology.
Dr. Parichay’s talk revolved around questions like: if AI does help the process of filmmaking and film writing? How does new media/digital media research involve the changing technological landscape? How is the image digitally manipulated in contemporary filmmaking? How and why film studies scholars collaborate with scholars from STEM fields?
Dr. Manish spoke on 3D Audio - a technology enabling immersive sound experiences - with applications in AR-VR, Virtual Tourism, and Arts and Exhibitions.
Dr. Amit Bhardwaj talked about the use of AR-VR based games to tell stories of our rich heritage. He talked about one such game - developed by IIT Jodhpur, Vizara, i-hub Drishti and ASI - on the Vadnagar site. He also highlighted how haptics interfaces might be used for speech communication, and possibilities of delivering the feel of music to the specially abled.
Dr. Srijan talked about Islamic art forms and its influence on material sciences.
Dr. Rajendra Nagar presented the development of various technological solutions for the artisans of Jodhpur region - a 3D Craftverse named "KalaAnubhav", for immersive and personalized navigation of the art forms.
The highlight of the workshop was the presentation of a “Music Appreciation App” - allowing music lovers to understand influences of Indian classical music on mainstream music - designed by two IIT Jodhpur B. Tech. students, namely, Mr. Anurag Sinha and Mr. Anurudh Verma, under the mentorship of Prof. Chhanda Chakraborti, the Coordinator of the Center on ADI. The audience greatly appreciated their work.
Masterclasses
The Centre of Excellence on Art and Digital Immersion has organized online masterclass sessions which were specifically designed for prospective students who were interested in joining the M.S by Research program under School of Liberal Arts, IITJ.
The first masterclass was on 10th of June 2023, and Dr. Manish Narwaria was the first resource person. Dr. Narwaria is an Assistant Professor in the department of Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur and an affiliated faculty of COE on ADI. His major research interests include the area of multimedia signal processing with focus on perceptual aspects toward content capture, processing, and transmission.
The Title of the talk: 3D Audio for Interactive and Immersive Sonic Experience.
Summary of the talk: To create a more realistic, immersive, and interactive sonic image of a dynamic audio environment for the listener to perceive. This is achieved through the creation of a Virtual Auditory Display- An on-demand software based auditory “display” for accurate positioning and rendering of sound sources in a dynamic environment.
The second masterclass was on 30th of June 2023 and Dr. Srijan Sengupta from department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering was the resource person for the session. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor in IIT Jodhpur in the same department and further affiliated to Digital Humanities and Centre for Art and Digital Immersion.
The title of his talk was: Digital art: Computer generated Islamic geometric patterns.
Summary of the talk: Geometric patterns have extensively been used in Islamic art and architecture of which geometric rosettes bear a resemblance to a flower, with an outer ring formed by a variable number of "petals" encircling a central “star”. Rosettes, owing to their structural symmetry, create an aesthetic appeal. There have been enormous attempts to codify the complex geometry of the rosettes, especially with the advent of computers and development of software capable of constructing complex structures. This work, keeping in view the simplistic practices and worldwide acceptability of Islamic art, proposes an alternative yet very simple construction method for rosettes, patterns, and tessellation. The geometric structures have been constructed with MSW (Microsoft Windows) logo (a free and readily available software by Microsoft in any corner of the world) using trivial geometric functions.