Coded Dreams, an exhibition of works by Marc Da Costa and Matthew Niederhauser, opens at Centre PHI with the support of Onassis ONX

This exhibition in Montreal Canada explores memories and myths using AI

PHI Centre presents “Coded Dreams,” an immersive exhibition that explores the frontiers of artificial intelligence (AI) and the imagination, powered by Onassis ONX. This exhibition showcases two innovative works by artists Marc Da Costa and Matthew Niederhauser: “Tulpamancer” and “The Golden Key.” Both works invite audiences to actively engage in the narrative, becoming part of the story through their interactions.

“Coded Dreams” blends art and technology, transforming complex data into interactive, dreamlike experiences. Visitors are encouraged to shape these stories as they unfold, making each experience unique. First, in “Tulpamancer,” participants will enter a virtual reality world where they share personal memories and visions of the future. By sharing your memories and future aspirations, you'll become the architect of an intimate and fascinating encounter with your tulpa, an AI designed that will explore and reflect upon your personal stories. The “Golden Key” reimagines folk tales with the help of AI, allowing visitors to guide the storyline through their choices. Each decision alters the course of the narrative, making every interaction a new adventure in a collective, never-ending tale.

Onassis ONX and Onassis are proud to bring “Coded Dreams” to Montreal’s PHI Centre, an exceptional exhibition where art and technology converge to transform complex data into immersive, interactive experiences. This unique exhibition invites participants to engage in a collective storytelling journey, blending myths and legends from around the world into evolving narratives. Every visitor’s interaction contributes to the unfolding tale, enriching and reshaping the story with each new perspective. Each visit offers a one-of-a-kind adventure, where the boundaries of art and AI dissolve, creating a dynamic, ever-changing experience for all involved.

You are invited to become part of the works by influencing the stories that will be unveiled to you through these experiences.

About Tulpamancer

"Tulpamancer" is a virtual reality installation using machine learning. The experience shapes an immersive, dreamlike encounter with the memories and possible futures of each visitor. Sitting down at a computer terminal that had been sitting forgotten in a warehouse since 1989, participants first encounter the tulpa through a series of questions about their own lives.

The tulpa, an idea rooted in Tibetan Buddhism but popularized by the theosophical thinker Annie Besant, refers to the physical manifestation of thought through spiritual practice and intense concentration.

The encounter continues in a world specially designed for each viewer. Participants are invited to put on a virtual reality headset and are led by their tulpa on a journey through a series of uniquely generated virtual scenes that invoke and question the memories of their own past and their potential fates. Ultimately, every interaction produces a unique work that is deleted at the conclusion of its viewing, left only to resonate in the minds of each participant.

A transformation in society now appears to loom with the emergence of AI, a technology that derives its power by concentrating intensely on enormous volumes of online text and images—the digital traces of our collective unconscious. The tulpa is therefore a way of making sense of modernity and the way we meet ourselves, by proposing alternative frameworks, offering participants the opportunity to imagine new stories and new futures thanks to artificial intelligence.

The work was part of the official selection of the South by Southwest® (SXSW) 2024 festival, the Venice Biennale 2023, the Geneva International Film Festival (GIFF) 2023 and the 28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan).

About The Golden Key

What power do myths have? Who gets to shape the myths of the future? "The Golden Key" is an immersive installation that probes these questions by giving audiences an opportunity to interact with an AI as it generates a never-ending folktale.

The work invites viewers to connect with the mythological dreams of an AI, as it writes and visualizes a never-ending story across three large projections. The AI was formed from tens of thousands of folk tales from all over the world, forming a dataset of narrative fragments that resonate with our most fundamental stories and concerns. As the story unfolds, an infinite progression of narratives, visions and sounds flow before the eyes of the audience, who is invited to play the role of "trickster" to actively shape the narrative of this generated story and explore the hidden structures behind the AI's purported magic.

"The Golden Key" is imagined as an artifact from a future world that suffered the worst ravages of climate change. Its unknown creators meant to produce a time capsule as a provocation that could help future generations recover their lost mythic past.

By combining audience input with an AI model trained on tens of thousands of folktales from around the world, "The Golden Key" seeks to give visitors agency to understand how these emerging technologies function and also the power to collectively shape new narratives as they imagine alternative futures together.

The work has won the Jury Prize of the XR SXSW 2024 competition as well as an official selection at the Geneva International Film Festival 2024.