Audiovisual technology has reshaped the boundaries of the art world, enabling artists to experiment with new materials and concepts and work at a new scale – and create immersive and interactive experiences for their audiences.
Rather than replacing traditional art, technology is adding to what’s possible by creating new categories of artistic expression. There is innovation not only in how the artist expresses themselves, but in the creative process itself.
For a number of years now, ISE has showcased some amazing tech-driven artwork. In fact, the range of artworks and artists that we’ve featured covers many different aspects of the interplay between technology and art.
Projection mapping has long been an ISE favourite, perhaps because it simply couldn’t exist outside the world of AV. In Amsterdam we ran the World Masters of Projection Mapping competition, and also saw the launch of Bart Kresa’s Sviatovid – a sculpture that came to life through intricate mapping onto its multifaceted surface. In Barcelona, we’ve sponsored projection mappings on the façade of the iconic Casa Batlló by artists including Refik Anadol, Sofia Crespo and Quayola.
Pictured: Sofia Crespo’s projection mapping onto Casa Battló (ISE 2024); an image from Alice Labourel’s ‘A Tiny Bead of Pure Life (ISE 2025); Bart Kresa’s Sviatovid projection-mapped sculpture (ISE 2019)
While projection mapping is usual location-specific, AV can also help art to reach new audiences in multiple locations. The last few years have seen a boom in shows that turn famous artworks into immersive experiences by animating them onto the walls, floors and sometimes ceilings of exhibition spaces. We were ahead of that trend at ISE 2022, where our Immersive Art Experience presented artworks by Van Gogh and others.
But technology isn’t restricted to new ways of showing art – it’s can also play a fundamental role in its creation. Many artists use AI and large amounts of data to create works that explore the relationship between nature and technology, humans and machines, or real and virtual. I’m thinking here of artists like Jeroen van der Most, who created a work inspired by the idea of a bee flying through the city of Barcelona; Quayola, who projected images of trees and tree diagrams onto Casa Batlló; and Refik Anadol, who has created colourful, pulsating shapes and textures by interpreting fluctuations in real-time datasets.
Since we’ve been in Barcelona, ISE has played a strong role in supporting creativity in the city. Every year we support the Llum light arts festival, which has presented works by world-renowned artists including Alice Labourel (whose work we showed at ISE this year), Matt Clark (United Visual Artists) and Joan Fontcuberta. And, along with our friends at LANG, we’re delighted to have helped the Fundació Joan Miró stage an installation by its 2024 prize winner, Tuan Andrew Nguyen.
With the capabilities of technology accelerating rapidly right now, it’s hard to predict what the art world will create in the future. But it’s a good bet that ISE will be there to bear witness to it.