“A Short History of Nearly Everything”
By Antonio Roberts
“A Short History of Nearly Everything” is an audiovisual artwork about
the connections between the river and technological advancements. Part
of the artwork is to be aware of the methods being used to produce it,
the sustainability of technology-based practices and the potential
impact this may have on the environment.
The environmental impact of his practice is an aspect of his work that
Roberts has been thinking about for a long time. 3D animation is a
notoriously resource-hungry process, which for some artworks and films
can require massive render farms that may take many hours or even days
to render a single video frame, which can have a massive impact on the
energy usage and environment. Similar issues exist for AI, VR, and
blockchain technologies.
Roberts makes a conscious choice to only use technology or methods
which don’t rely on render farms or outsourcing the work to other
companies or people. These include using the livecoding software
TidalCycles for the soundtrack, and a combination of Pure Data/GEM,
Inkscape and custom scripts for the visuals.
The artwork itself is an audiovisual journey along the Thames Estuary,
imagining the river is part of a network that absorbs all that is
around it, which includes nature but also man-made materials, such as
cables, technology and waste.
“A Short History of Nearly Everything” was commissioned by Elsa James
for the 2021 edition of Estuary Festival
https://www.estuaryfestival.co
