i-DAT’s algorythmic heritage flows through the core of our practice and dates back to the early years of our formation in 1998. Some of our creative Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning project include:
1997: Psalms:
https://www.mike-phillips.net/psalms/
Psalms is the Autonomous Wheelchair constructed by Guido Bugmann for Donald Rodney’s “Nine Night in Eldorado” at the South London Gallery, 1997. Now in the Tate Collection.
2000: Autoicon:
https://www.mike-phillips.net/autoicon/
Autoicon is a dynamic internet work and CD-ROM that simulates both the physical presence and elements of the creative personality of the artist Donald Rodney who died from sickle-cell anaemia.
2000: THE S.T.I. PROJECT: THE SEARCH FOR TERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE:
https://www.mike-phillips.net/sti/
S.T.I. is funded by the SciArt programme and turns the technologies that look to deep space for Alien Intelligence back onto Planet Earth in a quest for ‘evidence’ of Terrestrial Intelligence.
2002: Artefact:
https://www.mike-phillips.net/2002-artefact/
Artefacts can change their meaning not just over the years as different histriographical and institutional currents pick them out and transform their significance, but from day to day as different people view them and subject them to their own interpretation.
2002: Note Towards the Complete Works of Shakespeare / Generator:
https://www.mike-phillips.net/notes-towards/
Generator will present a series of ‘self-generating’ projects, incorporating digital media, instruction and participation pieces, drawing machines, experimental literature, and music technologies.
2006: Noogy:
https://www.mike-phillips.net/2006-noogy/
Noogy’s background is a little unclear. Some claim that Noogy arrived from deep space, originating somewhere off the shoulder of Orion, watching C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
2006: Sloth-bot:
https://arch-os.com/projects/slothbot/
Sloth-bots are large autonomous robots that move incredibly/imperceptibly slowly. They reconfigure the physical architecture imperceptibly as a result of their interactions with people, over time.
2014 QUALIA – a revolution in measuring audience feedback:
https://www.mike-phillips.net/qualia/
Enter Qualia (stage right). This is i-DAT’s ground-breaking digital technology and research project, which measures the mood of arts and culture audiences using a user-friendly interface that ‘gamifies’ the evaluation process.

2016 Quorum Cultural Computation:
https://www.mike-phillips.net/quorum/
Quorum proposes new analytical techniques which focus on enhancing audience engagement through the use of conversational AI, Artificial Neural Networks, Self Organising Maps and Deep Learning Networks to innovatively integrate subjective and objective data.
https://quorum.i-dat.org/tiwwa/
A technological fusion of interactive light and sound, this dynamic data driven artwork asks audiences to consider the data they generate and the algorithms that increasingly influence their behaviour.
https://www.mike-phillips.net/murmuration/
Murmuration was one of the outcomes from the E / M / D / L – EUROPEAN MOBILE DOME LAB for Artistic Research (http://www.emdl.eu/) partnership of European and Canadian cultural organisations funded by EU Culture Program.
2018 Emoti-OS:
https://www.mike-phillips.net/emoti-os-me/
Emoti-OS is a chatbot that uses conversations with its users to understand the collective mood of pupils at Plymouth School of Creative Arts and give students a voice and a way to express how they collectively feel.
2018-2021 SWCTN:
https://www.swctn.org.uk/automation/
https://www.swctn.org.uk/data/
The South West Creative Technology Network (SWCTN) is a £6.5 million project to expand the use of creative technologies across the south west of England.
References:
- NESTA blog post: https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/meet-emoti-os-chatbot-helping-empower-pupils/?utm_source=Nesta+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=1fa98009b0-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_06_19_09_37&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d17364114d-1fa98009b0-180642081
- https://www.mike-phillips.net/putting-feminism-into-artificial-intelligence/
- https://www.mike-phillips.net/ai-in-art-a-fact-late-night/
- Richard Birkett, 2023. Donald Rodney Autoicon. London, Afterall Books.
https://www.mike-phillips.net/book-launch-donald-rodney-autoicon-by-richard-birkett/ - Kristian Kloeckl, 2020. The Urban Improvise. Improvisation-Based Design for Hybrid Cities. Yale University Press. https://www.mike-phillips.net/the-urban-improvise/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem
- https://www.mike-phillips.net/ref2014-operating-systems-harvesting-data/
- https://www.mike-phillips.net/ref2021-quorum-cultural-computation-enhancing-audience-engagement/
- https://www.swctn.org.uk/automation/#flipbook-df_19964/13/
- Phillips, M. 2023. Algorhythmic Variations on Stanley Donwood’s DarkHedges copper Verdigris print. 100 GAN variants for the inner sleave, Augmented Reality animation and various video sequences. For John Matthias and Jay Auborn’s Ghost Notes album. Limited edition of 250. Dinked Edition, UK. https://dinkededition.co.uk/john-matthias-and-jay-auborn-ghost-notes
- Phillips, M. 2024. Digital Ectoplasm and the Infinite Architecture of the Fulldome. In: Baldwin, P. ed. Ghost Stories: Architecture and the Intangible. Architectural Design (AD), Wiley. Commissioned with publisher.
Postgraduate Researchers:
> Liz Coulter-Smith current PGR Exploring Generative Automatism and Process Art through Large Language Models.
> Dr Denis Roio: Algorithmic Sovereignty











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