Generative Art Illuminates Jakarta On The Longest Media Facade In The World

If bigger means better, then the Taman Anggrek certainly takes the cake. Not only is it the biggest mall in Indonesia, the massive complex also features the world’s longest LED media facade in the world. So what better place to feature some of the best generative art out there?

The massive 1160-foot-long screen towers over the city of Jakarta, wrapping around the exteriors of the sprawling skyscrapers. The works featured are commissioned by the media facade agency Standard Vision, who seamlessly integrate advertisements with the breathtaking generative visuals of artists such as Creator Casey Reas and Marius Watz.

The mesmerizing works playing across the screen function like a beacon, illuminating the city and transforming its entire urban terrain into a fireworks display of uninhibited color and shapes. The fluid images cascade from the sides of the buildings like an avalanche. Watz’s undulating vortexes surge from the screen, hypnotizing onlookers as they ripple and stretch. Ribbons of color hover in a foreboding ring of anticipation, almost like they could burst from the screens and submerge the skyline in a shower of electricity.

This may be the best way to see this kind of art—both for the sheer scale of the display and the public nature of the setting. Inflated to an impossible-to-ignore size, the images feel as if they’ve been unleashed for the first time, finally able to reach their full potential and explore their full range of movement.

But how does a screen of this size affect the public space that it resides within? As screens of this kind become more ubiquitous, it could very well have an impact on how people perceive both urban landscapes and architecture. While projection mapping already allows us to see buildings as a canvas, they are impermanent illusions when compared to screen facades. Screens are becoming an essential part of city life, both as canvases for adding artistic visuals to a city landscape, and a means of communicating information (and, to our chagrin, a place for advertising).

Generative art at this scale lets us imagine the city as a public space constantly in flux. It punctuates the daily movements of its inhabitants and emphasizes the city as a center of fluid technological innovation and cultural advancement.

Images courtesy of Standard Vision.

@dylanschenker