# Experimance An AI-driven art installation exploring humanity and machine intelligence through a living, responsive sandscape. - Date: 2025-07-30 - Categories: project, installation - Tags: collaboration, gallery, installation, AI, visuals - Image: https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance-2025-07-29-01947.jpg **Experimance** is an ongoing series of experiments about AI. In its form as an interactive exhibition, visitors shape the white sand with their hands. A depth camera reads the topography, and in response, AI-generated, satellite-like images are projected onto the surface. These visuals shift to reflect changes in the landscape, blending natural forms with human infrastructure, circuitry, and computation. As visitors sculpt, the installation speaks. An AI voice agent engages visitors in real time, inviting them into conversation about climate change, artificial intelligence, and the future we’re creating—whether we mean to or not. [Video](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/Experimance_FMC_1m_promo_h264_compressed.mp4) --- ## Artistic Statement *I am filled with hope, dread, and guilt about the human experimentation on our world and the accelerating pace of technological change that is our children's inheritance. This recklessness now extends to AI, as we rush toward machine intelligence, ushering in new species, tools, and ways of thinking. It reminds me of flying over a vast city—marveling at what we have built while grappling with its bloody price: our past, present, and future sacrifices. My work is about knowing, and the awe and horror of that knowing.* **Experimance** is a series of experiments that help me think more deeply about the nascent rise of machine intelligence and the recurring historical disasters that arise when humans act without consideration for the consequences—following the money, not the richness—the most catastrophic being anthropogenic climate change. The struggle for climate justice is a slow sketch of our current disorganized corporate-led stumble into the creation of alien machine intelligence, but both leave us with the despair of relentless repeated mistakes, of waiting too long and not long enough. Experimance frames this thoughtlessness visually as the impact of humans on their environment, but the imagery contains allusions to computational structures that (em)power our society and our current and future machine tools/children. I chose satellite viewpoints not just for their soaring perspective, but because they give a feeling of omniscience and power—like the computer games we play and the spy satellites that watch us. Yet they fundamentally flatten the view, ignoring depth; thus the illusion of being all-knowing is truly blinding. My own “experimance” involves daily use of AI tools to explore and see how they change me. AI code assistants help write much of the code, and AI is used to speak to the audience, generate some of the environmental sounds, and produce all the images in response to the topology of the sand. These images remix and collide the things we need to live with those we need to compute, reflecting the growing impact of human development on the world. It is a tragedy that the arts community has recently begun to reject AI art-making tools, and I believe that it is incumbent on artists to explore deeply with open hearts to better understand how these tools change and imperil us. With thoughtful engagement, we can continue the artistic tradition of inspiring a future into becoming. --- ## Exhibition history - _July 3 - Sept 3, 2025_: prints at [Tarragon Theatre](https://tarragontheatre.com/) in Toronto, ON. - _Aug 7 - Sept 29, 2025_: interactive installation at [Factory Media Centre](https://www.factorymediacentre.ca/) in Hamilton, ON. - _Sept 14 - Nov 9, 2025_: prints at [Neighbourhood Gallery](https://www.nuuc.ca/) in Toronto, ON. - _April 2026_: video work _Experimance: Orgbital Fragments_ screened at [FlashDRIVE](https://interaccess.org/), InterAccess, Toronto, ON. --- ## How it Works Experimance is powered by a suite of real-time technologies, orchestrated by custom software developed over two years: - **Depth & Vision Sensors** An Intel RealSense D415 depth camera monitors the sand’s shape, and a webcam detects visitor presence. - **Image Generation** The system uses a Stable Diffusion XL AI model (Juggernaut XL Lightning), and two LoRAs (Drone Photography and a custom built one for the Experimance style) to generate visuals in real time, based on the detected sand shape and a set of curated "biomes" and eras of human development. - **Sound & Music** Ambient sounds, many of them AI generated, match the visuals, while original music by **Daria Morgacheva** aka *Garden of Magic* underscores each era’s emotional tone. - **AI Voice Agent** Using GPT-4o for dialogue, AssemblyAI for text-to-speech and Cartesia AI for voice synthesis, the installation converses with visitors. It answers questions, reflects on its own nature, and guides interactions. The dialogue structure is tightly designed to encourage curiosity and respect silence. - **Software & Control** The installation runs on custom Python software integrating all elements—vision, audio, sensors, and generative models—written with the assistance of AI coding tools (Claude and o3). SuperCollider handles audio and music. Pipecat manages conversational state and function calls. --- ## Credits - **Concept, Design & Software**: **Ryan Kelln** - **Music**: **Daria Morgacheva aka [*Garden of Magic*](https://www.dariadora.com)** - **Technical Support & Photography**: [**Benjamin Lappalainen**](https://www.blap64.xyz) - **Curator**: [**Gladys Lou**](https://www.gladyslou.com/) - **Text-to-Image AI**: [Stable Diffusion XL base](https://huggingface.co/stabilityai/stable-diffusion-xl-base-1.0), [Juggernaut XI Lightning](https://civitai.com/models/133005?modelVersionId=920957) custom model, [Drone Photography for XL](https://civitai.com/models/159324/drone-photography-for-xl) LoRA by LordJia, custom Experimance LoRA by Ryan Kelln - **Voice Agent & Architecture**: [Pipecat](https://www.pipecat.ai/), [OpenAI GPT-4o](https://openai.com/index/hello-gpt-4o/), [AssemblyAI](https://www.assemblyai.com/) STT, [Cartesia AI](https://cartesia.ai/) TTS - **Audio software**: [SuperCollider](https://supercollider.github.io/) - **Sand**: Ethically sourced marine Aragonite from The Bahamas **Dedicated to Laura, Molly, and the new baby.** --- ## Images ### Factory Media Centre Installation Photography by [Benjamin Lappalainen](https://www.blap64.xyz) [@blapphoto](https://www.instagram.com/blapphoto/) ![Experimance interactive AI installation by Ryan Kelln at Factory Media Centre, featuring projected visuals on sand surface](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/FMC_installation.jpg) Experimance Installation at Factory Media Centre ![Experimance ceiling video projection at Factory Media Centre](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance-2025-07-29-02033.jpg) ![Detail of Experimance installation by Ryan Kelln displaying machine learning generated visuals responding to sand landscape](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance-2025-07-29-01999.jpg) ML-Generated Visuals Responding to Sand ![Experimance AI art piece by Ryan Kelln close-up of sand terrain](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance-2025-07-29-02009.jpg) Sand projection close-up ![Close-up view of Experimance by Ryan Kelln showing AI-generated satellite imagery projected onto sand topography](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance-2025-07-29-01947.jpg) AI-Generated Imagery on Sand Canvas ![Interactive moment in Experimance by Ryan Kelln where visitor hand movements create AI-powered satellite-like projections](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance-2025-07-29-02014.jpg) Interactive AI-Powered Projections ### Prints ![Experimance print by Ryan Kelln showing AI-generated crossroads imagery blending nature and technology](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance_cross_1.jpg) Experimance Crossroads #1 - Ryan Kelln ![Experimance artwork by Ryan Kelln featuring AI-created roundabout scene merging urban infrastructure with organic forms](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance_roundabout_1.jpg) Experimance Roundabout #1 - Ryan Kelln ![Green roofs artwork from Experimance series by Ryan Kelln, AI-generated satellite view of sustainable architecture](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/green_roofs_1.jpg) Experimance Green Roofs #1 - Ryan Kelln ![Road Roots print by Ryan Kelln from Experimance series, showing AI interpretation of infrastructure meeting nature](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/road_roots_1.jpg) Experimance Road Roots #1 - Ryan Kelln ![Experimance network #1, 2025 - Ryan Kelln & Mark Vargo, AI-generated computational infrastructure imagery](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/mvargo_experimance_network_1.jpg) Experimance network #1, 2025 - Ryan Kelln & Mark Vargo ![Seaside landscape from Experimance by Ryan Kelln, AI-generated coastal scene blending natural and artificial elements](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/seaside_1.jpg) Experimance Seaside #1 - Ryan Kelln ![Coastal artwork from Experimance series by Ryan Kelln, machine learning generated seascape with technological overtones](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/seaside_2.jpg) Experimance Seaside #2, 2025 - Ryan Kelln ![Ocean view from Experimance by Ryan Kelln, AI-created maritime landscape exploring human environmental impact](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/seaside_3.jpg) Experimance Seaside #3, 2025 - Ryan Kelln ![Experimance Highway Mandala #1 by Ryan Kelln, AI-generated mandala highway pattern blending infrastructure and organic forms](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance_highway_mandala.jpg) Experimance Highway Mandala #1 - Ryan Kelln ![Experimance Infinite #1 by Ryan Kelln, AI-generated infinite loop visual exploring recursion and computational art](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance_infinite.jpg) Experimance Infinite #1 - Ryan Kelln ![Experimance Beaches #1 by Ryan Kelln, AI-generated beach landscape merging natural and technological motifs](https://www.ryankelln.com/img/experimance/experimance_beaches.jpg) Experimance Beaches #1 - Ryan Kelln Web page: https://www.ryankelln.com/project/experimance/