A Selection of Prior Installations, Artworks, Projects and Designs
Betty Sargeant 2024 Showreel.
THE FAUXREST [2024]. Balnarring Beach, Australia
By Betty Sargeant.
Temporary public art installation.
Coated aluminium poles, 8.5m x 6m x 4.2m (high).
THE FAUXREST is a temporary public artwork featuring an artificial forest that’s installed in the centre of a real outdoor natural environment. This arrestingly beautiful installation has been conceptualised, designed, manufactured and installed by an AI robot: Betty Sargeant AI. THE FAUXREST places audiences in the centre of machine learning futures.
Details: https://www.bettysargeant.com/immersive-art/ai-art/
SELF-PORTRAIT of an AI [2024]. Mornington Shire Council Offices, Australia
By Betty Sargeant.
Temporary public art installation.
3-channel video artwork on a designed wall (decal adhesives), 10m x 3.5m (high).
SELF-PORTRAIT of an AI is a thought-provoking artwork that challenges viewers to consider the identity and consciousness of artificial intelligence. It blends artistic creativity with technological themes, offering a unique perspective on the emerging role of AI in society. The artwork stands as a provocation around AI’s ability to not only understand art but to independently express itself through art.
Details: https://www.bettysargeant.com/public-art/self-portrait-of-an-ai/
QUEEN [2023]. George Lane, St Kilda, Australia
Permanent road painting art.
Dulux Roadmaster paint. 4.5m x 41m.
This road painting artwork features the shape of the audio signal from G-Flip’s vocals on their hit song Queen. The soundwave runs the 41 meter length of historic George Lane, St Kilda, taking advantage of the site’s elongated footprint. The background of the artwork features a geometric coloured pattern that represents the dynamic range of the song’s instrumentation. QUEEN is a visual response to iconic contemporary music that has its roots in St Kilda.
Details: https://www.bettysargeant.com/public-art/road-painting/
REAL FAKE [2024]. Linden New Art, Australia
By Betty Sargeant.
A multi-sensory AI art installation.
Two channel video artwork, light wall, DMX lighting design, light box.
8.5m x 6m x 3m (high).
REAL FAKE invites audiences to consider the implications of artificial intelligence on global wilderness. Combining video and photography with hyper-realistic AI-generated scenes, REAL FAKE blurs the boundary between fact and fiction, prompting us to ponder whether what we see is captured by camera or conjured by computer algorithms.
Details: https://www.bettysargeant.com/immersive-art/ai-art/
DISCO APOCALYPSE [2022]. Karachi Biennial, Pakistan
By Betty Sargeant with Lorraine Brigdale (Yorta Yorta) and Justin Dwyer (PluginHUMAN)
Immersive audio-visual installation. A night club for end times.
8-channel video art, decal print designs, lighting and concept by Betty Sargeant.
21m x 7m x 4m (high).
Welcome to DISCO APOCALYPSE. A nihilistic frenzy. An almost unbearable reality. We invite audiences to rave on the precipice of the abyss. This immersive light installation is a perspective-warping onslaught of over-saturated colour, lighting and sound. Layered visuals coat the disco’s walls and floor. Shafts of moving light and bass-heavy electronic grooves are felt viscerally. Multiple video artworks beam out from screens. People are invited to stay and absorb this hedonistic celebration of end times.
Details: https://www.bettysargeant.com/immersive-art/disco-apocalypse/
MURAL ART: UNEARTHED [2022], Shepparton Festival, Australia
****Highly commended Indigenous Design Award: Good Design Awards****
By Betty Sargeant with Lorraine Brigdale (Yorta Yorta), Akshat Naurial and Justin Dwyer (PluginHUMAN)
A permanent public artwork on Yorta Yorta country (Shepparton, Australia).
Projection mapping, paint, electronics, online 3D landscape and mixed media.
21m x 4.5m (high).
UNEARTHED engages both physical and digital landscapes. The artwork features a permanent mural with contemporary re-workings of Yorta Yorta shields by Lorraine Brigdale and enlarged micrographs by Betty Sargeant. Embedded in the mural is an icon that connects audiences with a microverse. When audiences hold their phones to the icon, they access an explorable digital landscape created by Mumbai-based new media artist Akshat Nauriyal. This microverse is a parallel universe that exists alongside our non-digital reality. At night the mural is transformed into a projection mapped light experience created by Justin Dwyer.
Details: https://www.bettysargeant.com/public-art/mural-art/
DREAM 2.2 [2018]. National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, TAIWAN
By Betty Sargeant and Justin Dwyer (PluginHUMAN)
Interactive audio-visual installation controlled by audience members’ brainwaves in real-time.
Hand painted acrylic, EEG sensors, projection mapping, audio, mixed media.
13m x 6m x 4m (high).
DREAM 2.2 is an immersive, interactive art installation. This projection mapping artwork gives form to our mind’s ephemeral data. Audiences wear an EEG headset. They use their neural activity (brainwaves) to control the installation’s audio and visuals. In doing this, audiences experience their dreams come alive.
Details https://www.bettysargeant.com/immersive-art/immersive-installation/.
BREATHE [2019]. White Night Festival, Melbourne Museum, Australia
Immersive, environment-controlled LED light installation. Temporary public art.
LED lights, printed acrylic, mixed media, audio.
9m x 5m x 2.5m (high).
Breathe is an immersive art experience. It is inspired by organic structures. This artwork features recycled acrylic tubes, printed with images of microscopic elements from natural environments. Inside the tubes are led lights. The colours and patterns of the lights are controlled by environmental changes that occur in significant international ecosystems. This immersive installation was created in response to Betty Sargeant’s research and field trips in the Amazon, Panama and Australia.
CONCEAL [2019]. Luminous Festival, Australia
Single-channel, rear projected video artwork. Temporary public art.
This image shows two people walking in front of the artwork.
Photo-microscopy, projection mapping.
8.5m x 3m. Duration 6:24 minutes.
CONCEAL is a video artwork that features a fusion of digital and organic materials and processes. The artists used digital methods to highlight hidden organic structures. CONCEAL affords audiences the unique opportunity to experience and engage with layers of physicality not often available to us in our daily lives. This artwork features Betty Sargeant’s microscope photographs of biological samples that were collected from significant Naarm, Melbourne (Australian) ecosystems. The video is formed from generative computer animations of the biological imagery. Ultimately, CONCEAL reveals hidden structures from our surrounding natural environment.
Details https://www.bettysargeant.com/public-art/street-activation/.
THE ART OF CONSTANT CHANGE [2021]. Sheparton Festival, Shepparton Art Museum, AUSTRALIA
A large-scale video artwork controlled by brainwaves. Temporary public art.
45m x 9m. Duration 6:31 minutes.
The Art of Constant Change is a video artwork. The fractured visuals are driven by the artists own brainwaves. This artwork highlights how our neural function is affected by constantly changing global conditions.
[ i miss your touch ] 2020. ***WINNER Good Design Award 2020
By Betty Sargeant and Justin Dwyer (PluginHUMAN)
Participants collaborate with the artists to create a live interactive video artwork.
Real-time online virtual environment.
Ephemeral web platform.
[ i miss your touch ] is real time participatory online art. This virtual interactive video experience transports two people who are in separate locations into a shared virtual environment. This award-winning online platform launched in March 2020 as a rapid response to pandemic conditions. It helps people maintain meaningful social and physical connections and provides a personalised art experience. It also provides the experience of virtual touch. [ i miss your touch ] makes people feel as if they are together in one space.