Eness - FRAME Exhibition of the Year: Modern Guru and the Path to Artificial Happiness Continues its Global Odyssey

2024-12-16

Modern Guru and the Path to Artificial Happiness - Château Royal de Blois in the Loire Valley, France, until January 5, 2025

Modern Guru and the Path to Artificial Happiness by Melbourne-based art and technology studio ENESS has been awarded the 2024 FRAME Exhibition of the Year for its insightful storytelling and technically-advanced inflatables that are alive with AI.

Offering a new type of art interaction, the titular character – Modern Guru – dispenses AI-generated wisdom as he detects visitors taking his photo. Throughout the exhibition, modern paths to happiness are explored along a mystical journey, raising questions about wisdom, happiness, and spirituality in the age of AI.

A site-responsive exhibition with an ever-evolving story

This creatively ambitious work has been reconfigured for seven different cultures on its world tour, with more exhibitions in the pipeline. The experience is carefully reframed for different sites and markets, while ensuring that the message remains effective and the art pushes technical and artistic boundaries.

As the world responds to ongoing AI developments, the exhibition story also evolves, exploring new areas of speculation, such as the effects that AI will have on artists. Currently being exhibited at Château Royal de Blois, in the Loire Valley, France, the environmental footprint of AI was freshly incorporated into the work in response to current media attention.

The evolution, so far...

The mystical journey exploring modern paths to happiness tripled in size from its initial debut in Centre d'art à Châteaugiron, France, to a 1000 square metre installation in Taiwan. The following exhibition in Thailand saw the incorporation of extensive narration, an AI game, and talking characters. Original characters Yogi and the Forest Dancer, both 10-metres tall, symbolise creative freedom in the modern world, and are used interchangeably depending on the parameters of each new site. Forest Dancer features a six-metre-wide skirt adorned with LEDS and balances as she does largely through the interplay of geometry and cleverly calculated air pressure. As visitors move through her arms, the motion sensor sets off a bell-like chime to acknowledge their presence, and longer flourishes are gifted upon every seventh visitor.

The Sun God was developed for the third exhibition. He surveys the installation from the top of a long flight of inflatable steps representing his tongue. When used, fifty separate inflatables make up this extensive feature, one that is strong enough to withstand many audience members simultaneously scaling its expanse to meet the Sun God. The Wayward Forest is a cluster of denuded trees, contrasting with the twirling, creatively free Forest Dancer. Like many forests in folklore, this forest has an eerie edge. The Wayward Forest poses questions about the future of AI and what it may mean for humans. “AI doesn’t care about sentience. To AI, a tree is a form to be manipulated," explains Nimrod Weis, Artist and Founder of ENESS. "As sentient creatures, we grasp the deepest significance of trees and, in this way, the Wayward Forest reflects our current concerns about AI.”

The Modern Guru character explained

Through all exhibitions, the central character remains – Modern Guru – a translucent ovoid with four oversized digital eyes, floating above a ceremonial ring of LEDs. Absurdist messages flow from his mouth and, in a statement about the true nature of lived experience, a new message is delivered when visitors take his photo – a missive produced only for those who seek to photograph life rather than live the moment. Wise quotes generated by AI for Modern Guru include: “Dare to admire things no one else has admired,” a profundity that questions from where wisdom will stem in a human future driven by AI. Modern Guru and the Path to Artificial Happiness is the latest inflatable installation from ENESS, a studio dedicated to fusing art and technology and pushing the boundaries of mediums like inflatables.

The ENESS approach

“We treat inflatables as a medium – like charcoal or paint – it’s a base material we are constantly investigating," adds Weis. "With Modern Guru, we are testing the limits by mounting a printer at the Guru’s ‘mouth’, from which AI messages spool. This requires an understanding of air pressure and engineering.” Sustainability is a key consideration, with the entire 1000 square metre exhibition constructed from inflatables to minimise hard materials and cut down on air miles. All exhibition fabric is recycled through a plastics recycling company. The skins are broken down, processed, and returned to raw plastic for reuse in packaging as textiles and other products.

Matyas Simonyi, Creative Director, Tom Postma Design

A snapshot of the FRAME judges' quotes "This is an amazingly creative project, and the representation, story, execution, and experience are absolutely captivating. The design presents very complex ideas in a surprisingly straightforward manner, as all good exhibitions and installations do. From a sustainability perspective, the reusing and recycling of the installation is well thought out. It is also interesting how the adaptation of the show to different audiences is part of the overall message."

Jessica Adkins, Brand Experience Design Lead, Europe, M Moser Associates

"A thoughtful and well-considered design that feels both unique and entirely appropriate. The use of colour and form is excellent, and the story is well told. The flexible configuration, while essential, is executed intelligently, with a clear plan to reduce environmental impact. Delightful!"

About ENESS

Founded in 1997, ENESS is a multi-award-winning art and technology studio. The team produces temporary and permanent interactive public art that combines various disciplines, including sculpture, textiles, design, programming, music, and story. At the heart of all ENESS work is cross-generational connection. Pioneers of new media art, the collective's ethos is a belief in the power of providing art in everyday life that fires the imagination and provides joy, happiness, and beauty in unexpected places – transformational experiences that change lives.

Photo credit: Te-Fan Wang