Mental health awareness in UAE: AI-powered exhibition turns text into art

A Chinese artist has launched a temporary exhibition at Jameel Arts Centre to spread awareness about anxiety disorder, as the UAE marks mental health awareness month.

Multidisciplinary artist Samson Young developed the new tech-equipped installation, Reasonable Music, an interactive environment that connects sound with text and images using Artificial Intelligence.

Taking a technological approach to the philosophical ancient Chinese text of Daodejing, which dates to 4th century BCE, Young aims to inspire visitors towards self-expression and deep absorption of the surrounding environment.

“The Daoist thought responded to a turbulent era of war and violence. Using computational analyses of the Daodejing’s formal features, filtered through human intuition, it invites visitors to interact with their space in a new perspective,” said Darn Ross, head of collections at Jameel Arts Centre.

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Inside the first room, a video shows a lone musician playing in a recording booth, performing a score composed by Young with glass harmonica, triangle, and detuned viola – instruments that were anciently perceived to cause mental illnesses. The calming music is played on a speaker hung on the roof above the head of the visitor, who watches a silhouette of the musician on a colourful screen placed ahead.

“The meditative artistic space forms new teachings for times of great anxiety,” noted Ross.

Self-expression

The main gallery features 3D-printed sculptures, connected in a closed-loop network, that respond to the changing light, sound and temperature levels.

Depending on how many people are in the room at any given time, algorithms will begin to generate text or sound differently.