Nirav Beni

Nirav is a South African new media artist and engineer currently based in London. Having a background in Mechatronics Engineering, he positions himself at the intersection of art and technology, where he aims to incorporate AI and computation into his practice to create evocative and immersive experiences.

Education:

[2014 - 2017] ~ BSc (Eng) Mechatronics, University of Cape Town (ZA)

[2019 - 2021] ~ MA Information Experience Design, Royal College of Art (UK)

Previous Exhibitions:

X-cavations, The Crypt Gallery (UK), 2019

Art Machines 2: International Symposium on Machine Learning and Art 2021, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre (HK), 2021

Upcoming Exhibitions:

Beyond The Frame, The Horse Hospital (UK), 2021

Beep Beep, Menier Gallery (UK), 2021

Image + Bias, Goethe-Institut (DE) / Gray Area (US) / Artivive (AT) / Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH), 2021

As data and computational algorithms have become increasingly more important, they have also become more complex, ubiquitous and opaque. Our interactions with these computational systems have increased exponentially, yet our understanding of them often lags.

With my current research, I am exploring realities challenging the human-machine dynamic, machine intelligence and the unboxing of algorithmic computation. In particular, I am investigating interpretations as well as the significance of machine and computational randomness.

I design experiences that address complex concepts related to computation and actuation. My objective is to get audiences to question the practical and philosophical complexities that stem from attempting to define the liminal space where randomness exists.

These random machines is a study that deals with machine randomness and questions how we interpret it. Through a designed computational object situated in a spatial environment, I test and challenge the coexistence with us, the machine, random motion and the poetry that is generated through the shared experience.

In the pursuit of defining randomness, curiosity into the implications of true randomness developed. What does a truly random machine mean for computation in this digital age, and how can it affect the frameworks that structure our anthropocentric reality?

Through decoding the randomness or assigning patterns, can we interpret its thinking or operations and gain greater agency over these systems - or do they elevate to the sublime and intelligent?

Motion is driven by electromagnetic actuators propelling the system into life. Through magnetic interference, a greater sense of unpredictability emerges. Computational and actuated randomness synthesises to form a feedback loop influenced by factors unaware to the observer.

When in full actuation and murmuration, the object appears to express its agency. Is this a new emerging life within the machine and a new form of communication? Or does it just remain a computational block uncorrelated to its surrounding environment and nothing more?

I argue that randomness is this border between current and speculative for the machine, and in turn, for us as well - but I’ll leave that up to you to decide.