YAK

France

Yacine Aït Kaci is a digital artist, ambassador, and specialist in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He has been working in culture and innovation for over 25 years. Yacine is recognized as an international pioneer in digital arts. After creating the first digital content (CD-ROM/DVD-ROM) for the Centre Pompidou (1997), Yves-Saint-Laurent (1998), and the Louvre (1999), he founded the art and innovation collective Electronic Shadow (2000). They invented and patented 3D Video mapping (2003) and received numerous prestigious awards, such as Ars Electronica (2004), Laval Virtual (2004 and 2005), and became the first Europeans to win the Grand Prize in Art at the Japan Media Art Festival (2005). After numerous shows, exhibitions, and innovative projects, attracting hundreds of thousands of people, Electronic Shadow had a retrospective at the Granet Museum in Aix-en-Provence under the name “FUTURÉALISMES. In 2011, Yacine developed a new artistic project that gained global success beyond the cultural scene: ELYX. ELYX proved that a fictional character can have an impact in real life through the hybridization of the real and the virtual. ELYX became widely famous worldwide for its joyful, universal, and non-verbal language and became the first and only digital ambassador for the United Nations. In 2015, ELYX embodied both the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals from their inception. In addition to culture and innovation, Yacine also became a specialist in societal transitions and change management, leading him to establish the ELYX Foundation in 2018 with Adeline PILON, an entrepreneur specialized in Art and Tech.


His approach to strategy and communication is about bridging cultures: the cultures of the world and also cultural forms, placing non-verbal communication at the core of his approach. In 2024, the ELYX Foundation, in partnership, launches a coalition of stakeholders around a new project between art and impact : Archipel.


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Archipel: 55

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At a time when the boundaries between the real and the fictional are blurring, the Archipel | Genesis series becomes a powerful metaphor for the challenges we face. As Yacine Aït Kaci himself explains:


‘The idea for Archipel came from a deep reflection and a metaphor that I've been exploring for a long time. The current form dates back to 2020, at the time of the emergence of Metaverse, which I investigated a great deal.(...) The Archipel embodies the idea of a decentralised network: fragments, islands, that connect to create a coherent whole. This is also how generative artificial intelligences work, assembling fragments to produce a unified work. In 2022 and 2023, in the face of mounting crises and the crumbling of multilateralism, the metaphor has taken on a new resonance: that of a world to be reinvented, where everyone, from their own island, contributes to recreating a collective archipelago’.


Each suspended island, created using generative AI algorithms, embodies the tensions between isolation and interconnection, otherness and unity. These digital landscapes are both utopian dreams and warnings of the major upheavals threatening the planet.

Here, Yacine Aït Kaci draws on the concept of ‘post-reality’, using techniques derived from immersive media and AI, not to deceive the public, but to reveal profound truths. These ‘true false’ islands confront viewers with their own beliefs and perceptions of a world in constant and profound redefinition.

technique

ai

format

portrait

duration

00:59

year

2024

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Generative art
Generative art refers to a way of creating artworks using an autonomous system. In digital art, these are usually generated from code and algorithms created by the artist, often with certain predefined parameters or systems. Although these parameters guide the final outcome of the work, generative art is generally a surprising way to create artworks, as the results are often unexpected and the number of possible outcomes can be infinite.
AI
AI art is a branch of generative art that uses artificial intelligence. Unlike other generative artworks, AI artworks use specific complex algorithms and models derived from machine learning. The most common methods for creating AI art today are GANs (generative adversarial networks) or proprietary prompting platforms such as ChatGPT, Sora, Midjourney, or Dall-e.
3D
3D art uses 3D software such as Blender, Cinema4D, Houdini, or video game software such as Unity to create works of art. In 3D works, artists can either arrange assets (the 'objects' in a 3D artwork or world) that they have created themselves or purchased from other creators to create elaborate environments and scenes (an approach to 3D art called 'set dressing'), or specialize in sculpting, which involves creating their own objects and assets.
Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry is a specialized 3D technique that allows 3D objects to be created from numerous photographs taken of an object or scene from multiple angles. These photos are then compiled to determine the specific positioning, shape, and dimensions of the object in space, and then converted into a 3D model. Initially developed for engineering and urban planning, photogrammetry has become a way for artists to produce extremely accurate 3D models from real-life images.
Collage
An extension of the traditional, plastic approach to collage, digital collage involves searching for and cutting out multiple images, extracting them from their original context, and recomposing them in a new arrangement to create a work of art. Artists can use their own photographs or find images on the internet.
Illustration
Digital illustrations are created using software such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Procreate. As with drawing on paper, the artist uses a stylus to sketch a figure or object, usually on a tablet, to construct a scene or artistic universe. Unlike traditional drawing methods, digital illustration is much more forgiving, as mistakes can be easily corrected and drawn elements and objects can be easily moved around within a scene.
Video
Video artworks primarily use a recording camera, but may sometimes include additional post-processing or editing to distort, modify or add additional elements to the image. Some artists use state-of-the-art recording equipment to create macro zoom-ins or time lapses, privileging fidelity to the subject matter. Others use additional softwares to significantly modify or warp the video, creating an alternative perspective on the world that surrounds us.

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