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DesignNewswire · COMO, Italy ·

Weidi Zhang and Jieliang Luo Receives the Bronze A' Design Award for ReCollection Interactive AI Art Experience Design in Idea and Conceptual Design

Weidi Zhang and Jieliang Luo recognized for idea and conceptual design by the international grand jury of the 2023 - 2024 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 15, 2024 /DesignNewswire/ ReCollection Interactive AI Art Experience Design by Weidi Zhang and Jieliang Luo has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Idea and Conceptual Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The recognition forms part of the 2023 - 2024 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

What the Bronze A' Design Award Means

The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.

More About ReCollection Interactive AI Art Experience Design

ReCollection is an interactive art installation that forms images of personal memories from spoken language. Participants whisper a fragmented memory into a microphone. An artificial intelligence system converts the speech into text, completes the sentence as a short narrative, and generates images from the narrative. The images are then processed algorithmically into an evolving real-time visualization. The installation explores the relation between language, memory and imagination, and is also intended as a prototype for future work with people affected by dementia.

Award Record

Weidi Zhang and Jieliang Luo is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.

About the A' Idea and Conceptual Design Award

The A' Idea Design Award is an international idea design competition recognizing great ideas by designers, creators, innovators and free thinkers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to idea designers, conceptual designers, innovation consultants and creative thinkers from all countries. Typical entries include innovations, prototypes, blueprints, sketches, models and concepts. The awarded idea designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/idea

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project
ReCollection Interactive AI Art Experience Design
Function
Interactive AI Art Experience Design
Category
Idea and Conceptual Design
Discipline
Communication Design
Industry
Design Industry and Innovation
Colors
Dark Slate Gray, Black, Light Gray, Dim Gray and Slate Gray
Images
5

The Recognition

Laureate
Weidi Zhang and Jieliang Luo
Country
United States of America
Recognition
Bronze A' Design Award
Edition
2023 - 2024
Design ID
#157648

Credits

Team
Weidi Zhang and Jieliang Luo
Image Credits
credit to Weidi Zhang and Jieliang Luo

Design Details

Unique Properties
ReCollection is an AI art experience that synthesizes personal memories based on users’ language input, blurring the boundaries between remembrance and imagination through AI system design and experimental visualization. Beyond its potential as a future therapeutic prototype for dementia groups, this work provides new possibilities for collective memories and cultural reproduction.
Inspiration
ReCollection was born of witnessing my grandmother's memory regression due to dementia, where her cherished stories dissolved into fragmented words. Since 2020, over 50 million people have faced this painful reality of memory loss due to Alzheimer's and related dementias. Yet, amidst this poignant backdrop, the emergence of text-to-image AI systems in 2022 offered a glimmer of new perspective, as they harnessed the power of language to imagine and reassemble fragmented memories.
Research
This artwork was born of witnessing my grandmother's memory regression due to dementia, where her cherished stories dissolved into fragmented words. Dr. Mary Steedly once described memories as a "densely layered, sometimes conflictual negotiation with the passage of time", and in 2022, over 50 million people faced this painful reality of memory loss due to Alzheimer's and related dementias. Yet, amidst this poignant backdrop, the emergence of text-to-image AI systems in 2022 offered a glimmer of new perspective, as they harnessed the power of language to imagine and reassemble fragmented memories, possibly to weave what time and disease had stolen.
Challenge
In ReCollection, AI is engaged in the decision-making process in imaginative acts. Presently, AI's role in dementia research spans from early detection and progression mapping of the disease to serving as companion for individuals with dementia. However, the utilization of AI in dementia research often remains confined to caregiving roles, rarely exploring its potential in more symbiotic, imaginative collaborations.
Realization and Technology
ReCollection integrates AI systems and experimental visualization into the design of an interactive art experience. By employing AI techniques like speech recognition, text auto-completion, and text-to-image models, it translates voice inputs of fragmented language into moving computer graphics in real-time. In the art installation, ReCollection invites participants to share their personal memories in one sentence. The AI system then transforms speech to text and automatically fills in details as a completed narrative, generating new visual memories.
Operation and Interaction
In the art installation, a participant will whisper fragmented memories into the microphone. The AI system will automatically fill in the details of the spoken words to complete the text with a narrative using the GPT-4, a large language model. The completed narrative will be sent to Stable Diffusion to generate synthetic images representing the memories based on the machine’s interpretation. The images output by machines is further developed and visualized algorithmically as an evolving interactive experience. ​
Project Duration and Location
Duration varied (Interactive work) Location: this project has been presented in Los Angeles Convention Center (United States), Signal Immersive Art Gallery (Canada), Media and Immersive eXperience Center (United States), and will be presented at Cinema Mystica (Hungary)
Specifications
Space Dimensions: While adaptable to different room sizes, we suggest a space dimension of 7m x 7m x 4m (L x W x H) to achieve the desired projection size and quality. ReCollection was displayed as an interactive art installation incorporating a wall projection or an LED screen, and a pedestal positioned to face the projection. This pedestal was designed to hold a microphone and a USB button for interactivity. Our exhibition space was intentionally designed in a dark environment, lit by the projection light and a dimmed spotlight situated atop the pedestal. Technical Properties: 1. Audio Setup: A speaker tailored for the audio component. 2.
Keywords
generative design, data visualization, interactive AI art

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