Code to Material: Project by HfG students at the Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennial

The 4th Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennale "Expanded Animation" is one of the youngest events of its kind dedicated to the art of independent animation.
Two simultaneous year-long academic collaborative projects between the Biennale and Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and Sichuan Academy of Arts have produced 14 new independent animated works. Curated by Daniel Franke and Tang Yong these works by students and professors express and combine complexity, daily objects, algorithms, and local cultural phenomenon.

The project "Code to Material" for the Biennale emerged from a research seminar by Daniel Franke at the HfG Karlsruhe.
In the courses, students from various fields such as media art, product design and mechanical engineering (KIT) examined algorithms from the fields of computer science, mathematics and cybernetics as well as from other disciplines such as biology and physics. The immateriality of these abstract algorithms and digital codes was the starting point to transform the performative aspects of algorithmic systems and to project this understanding onto lifeless matter.
The seminars included both practical and theoretical parts. The second part focused on understanding the mechanism of complex systems and focused on developing artistic projects to simulate different systems such as emergence, cellular automata, genetic algorithms, neural networks, and multi-agents. In addition to the technical aspects, the simulation was discussed on the basis of its media/philosophical implications and their significance for the arts. From there, the students developed their own projects in the course of the seminar, which play with the duality of immateriality/materiality or virtual/real.