Inside our minds, there is a vivid depiction of the world around us that is replete with sounds, smells, colors, objects, and memories — but the brain presents us with only snapshots; in fact, most of what we see is an illusion. Agnosia — meaning the inability to process sensory information — is a new media installation that harnesses the elusive process of memory-making and recalling them by making glitches in the natural process of remembering, providing the artist and the audience a free flow of recalling memories and embedded feelings. It features a custom-built two-screen layout and projected visuals drawn from EEG readings of the artist’s brainwaves, measuring the electrical activities of his brain to render memories, sensory responses, and spatial experiences both visible and audible to its audience. This video piece is part of a series of six recorded outputs from Agnosia, capturing a unique moment within the generative process of the work. While the original installation was designed as a real-time, responsive environment—shaped by the artist's brainwave data and spatial memory triggers—these recorded videos act as autonomous artifacts of that ephemeral experience. Detached from the live installation, this particular video presents a fragment of an evolving inner landscape where memory, perception, and spatial distortion merge. Rendered through custom-developed software and AI-driven transformations, it reflects the traces of sensory inputs, glitches in recollection, and the layered construction of personal and collective memory within digital space.
ABOUT THE ARTIST Ali Phi is a transmedia artist based in Toronto. His works are at the intersection of art, science, and technology, Through installations, autonomous machines, and performances, he explores the underlying mechanisms of new media, technology, interactions and data. In his practice, architecture and space play a vital role both metaphorically and physically. He sought the interaction between the physical perception of the human body and its mind experiments of space to provoke new imaginaries in both artificial and the real worlds; By utilizing computer programming and generative algorithms, he produces interactive and generative media that involve the relationship between geometry, pattern, light, and poetry. His creations often incorporate transparent, reflective, and modular elements, combined with mathematics, particle systems, and point clouds. He has performed live in both new media and technology realms; he is known for his live performances, which embed generative and time-based material with sound and computational dialogues to create experiences through data visualization and has been awarded multiple prizes and grants for his artistic work, including the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and Photon Foundation Poland. As the artistic director of TADAEX (Tehran Annual Digital Arts Exhibition) for the last five editions, He also wore multiple hats as a jury, mentor, and lecturer and held numerous workshops in participation with Toronto Art Council, York University Toronto, and Virginia Commonwealth University of the Arts Qatar and has performed and exhibited in Ars Electronica (Austria), Mutek (Montreal, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Dubai), the Ontario Science Centre (Canada), Virginia Commonwealth University of the Arts (Qatar), The Tehran Architecture Biennial (Iran), Patchlab Digital Art Festival (Poland), Asia Now: Paris Asian Art Fair (France), Art Brussels (Belgium) and New Now (Germany) beside other exhibitions in Canada, USA, UAE and Turkey.