Biography
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Kevin Mack is a pioneer of immersive art, computer graphics and visual effects. Mack received the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (1998). He is also known for his work on FIGHT CLUB (1999), BIG FISH (2003), HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (2000), A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001) and many other films. Kevin Mack IMDB Filmography
Mack's abstract virtual reality artworks, Anandala, Blortasia, and Zen Parade, have been exhibited at art and technology events around the world. Designed to inspire awe, engage the imagination, and enhance well being, Mack's work is being studied and used in therapeutic and medical applications. Mack is inspired by transcendent visions, nature, and technology. His work is informed by research in a wide range of fields from neuroscience to artificial life. Mack's visions, which began in early childhood, inspired a lifelong dream to share them as immersive virtual reality art. |
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The son of Disney artists, Mack grew up drawing, painting and sculpting. Mack attended Art Center College of Design, where he majored in Fine Art, Illustration and Film. After college, Mack supported his experimental art and music working in the film industry as a scenic artist, model maker, sculptor, concept artist, and matte painter for commercials and movies.
In 1986, Mack began exploring the virtual world of computer graphics as an artistic medium. Recognizing the computer's potential for film work, Mack helped pioneer the use of computer graphics for visual effects and became a creative leader in the development and application of digital art technologies. Mack explored artificial life, rule based systems, and emergence as tools in the creation of virtual art and visual effects. Among the first to exploit the unique capabilities of 3D printing, Mack creates virtual sculptures that cannot be produced by any other means. Mack's work in artificial life and rule based systems, used to grow the computer generated tree in WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, and inside of a human brain in FIGHT CLUB, inspired the development of tissue simulation software that has been used for virtual stem cell research. |
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In 2006, Mack received the title of Honorary Neuroscientist from UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine for his talks there on perception and visualization. In 2007 he received an honorary Doctorate of Science degree from Art Center College of Design for his contributions to the field of motion picture visual effects. In 2012, Mack worked with physicists at CERN on the visualization of recent discoveries in particle physics.
Since the arrival of commercial VR headsets in 2014, Mack has focused his efforts on developing and sharing his virtual reality artworks and speaking about virtual reality, art, and the future at related expos, conferences and events.
Since the arrival of commercial VR headsets in 2014, Mack has focused his efforts on developing and sharing his virtual reality artworks and speaking about virtual reality, art, and the future at related expos, conferences and events.
Artist Statement
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Motive
I have an obsessive fascination with the visions, ideas, and processes that inspire my work. The creation of vivid depictions and expressions of these imagined and emergent realities is my primary preoccupation in life. Abstract Vision
When I close my eyes I can see an endless parade of vivid, three dimensional, animated abstract visions. These compelling hypnagogic visualizations and the ideas they inspire are fundamental to my work. I am fascinated with the abstract visual language of shapes and colors. Abstract shapes and colors are fundamental to reality and our perception of it. Though many may consider the abstract simply a genre of art, it's actually the essence of art, and everything else. The abstract is the universal language of consciousness, nature, and reality itself. My work explores the nature of these imponderables. |
Art and Technology
I've been making virtual art using 3D computer graphics for over thirty years. As technology has advanced, so have the ways in which I can share my virtual creations. Digital ink jet printing enabled me to make high quality prints. 3D printing let me bring my virtual art into the physical world. Virtual reality makes it possible to experience my art in it's natural habitat. Using Artificial-Life and AI, I create living virtual creatures with complex emergent behavior that is expressive and creative.
I've been making virtual art using 3D computer graphics for over thirty years. As technology has advanced, so have the ways in which I can share my virtual creations. Digital ink jet printing enabled me to make high quality prints. 3D printing let me bring my virtual art into the physical world. Virtual reality makes it possible to experience my art in it's natural habitat. Using Artificial-Life and AI, I create living virtual creatures with complex emergent behavior that is expressive and creative.
Spatial Presence
The fundamental innovation of virtual reality is spatial presence - the sense of being in a place. Spatial presence is an entirely new communication medium. For the first time in human history we can directly transmit the first person subjective experience of reality, independent of actual reality.
The fundamental innovation of virtual reality is spatial presence - the sense of being in a place. Spatial presence is an entirely new communication medium. For the first time in human history we can directly transmit the first person subjective experience of reality, independent of actual reality.
Reality as an Art Form
I approach virtual reality as an artistic medium in and of itself. Digital painting and sculpting are elements of my process, but my work is more like installation art, with an important difference, it is not constrained by the limits of physical reality. I construct realities that are native to virtual reality. They do not simulate or depict realities, they are realities in and of themselves.
I approach virtual reality as an artistic medium in and of itself. Digital painting and sculpting are elements of my process, but my work is more like installation art, with an important difference, it is not constrained by the limits of physical reality. I construct realities that are native to virtual reality. They do not simulate or depict realities, they are realities in and of themselves.
Life, Intelligence, and Consciousness
I'm fascinated by the idea of intelligent artificial-life and the inevitable questions it inspires - What is life? What is intelligence? What is consciousness? To explore these questions, I create intelligent, artificial-life creatures as an integral part of my virtual worlds. They are quite simple compared to life as we know it, yet they exhibit complex emergent behavior. They are expressive, emotive, social, curious, and creative. They are aware of themselves and others. Interacting with these virtual beings can provide surprising insights into the nature of life, intelligence, and consciousness.
I'm fascinated by the idea of intelligent artificial-life and the inevitable questions it inspires - What is life? What is intelligence? What is consciousness? To explore these questions, I create intelligent, artificial-life creatures as an integral part of my virtual worlds. They are quite simple compared to life as we know it, yet they exhibit complex emergent behavior. They are expressive, emotive, social, curious, and creative. They are aware of themselves and others. Interacting with these virtual beings can provide surprising insights into the nature of life, intelligence, and consciousness.
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Process
Technology provides me with an endless palette of new possibilities and enables me to dissolve traditional boundaries of medium, process, style and genre. My process integrates deliberate design and random happenstance - painting and sculpture - realism and abstraction - nature and technology - art and mathematics - science and mysticism - philosophy and humor. People often say "We are only limited by our imagination". I've found that with technology I can create things I could never have imagined. Using directed randomness, procedural rule based systems and artificial life, I can create my own laws of nature and explore what emerges. Discovery and the search for novelty are central to my creative process. Novelty is a fundamental aspect of awe. I endeavor to understand and exploit the mechanisms of perception and awe to create art that is perpetually novel and awe inspiring. |
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The Science of Awe
The primary goal of my work is to inspire awe. I explore and study neuroscience in an effort to understand the mechanisms of perception and how art and nature produce the transcendent experience of awe. The understanding I've gained from my research has become integral to my work. I've developed a variety of artistic techniques to inspire the neurological processes that are fundamental to awe.
In recent years awe has become recognized as a unique emotion. The science of awe has made its way into popular culture through mainstream media. As an artist focused on awe, it's been exciting to see it's incredible benefits identified, verified, and demonstrated by the scientific community. Scientific studies have proven that awe, as experienced through art and nature, has significant mental and physical health benefits. It reduces stress, anxiety and inflammation, and has positive effects on attitude, behavior and well being. Awe inspires accommodation, the re-evaluation and reformation of our models of reality and self, which can bring about lasting positive changes to attitude and personality.
The primary goal of my work is to inspire awe. I explore and study neuroscience in an effort to understand the mechanisms of perception and how art and nature produce the transcendent experience of awe. The understanding I've gained from my research has become integral to my work. I've developed a variety of artistic techniques to inspire the neurological processes that are fundamental to awe.
In recent years awe has become recognized as a unique emotion. The science of awe has made its way into popular culture through mainstream media. As an artist focused on awe, it's been exciting to see it's incredible benefits identified, verified, and demonstrated by the scientific community. Scientific studies have proven that awe, as experienced through art and nature, has significant mental and physical health benefits. It reduces stress, anxiety and inflammation, and has positive effects on attitude, behavior and well being. Awe inspires accommodation, the re-evaluation and reformation of our models of reality and self, which can bring about lasting positive changes to attitude and personality.
The Power of Art
Art can entertain, shock, raise awareness, provide political and social commentary, provoke intellectual inquiry and emotional response. The objective and theme of my work is to inspire a transcendent experience of profound beauty, mystery and awe, and provide unique insights into the nature of reality, life and consciousness.
Art can entertain, shock, raise awareness, provide political and social commentary, provoke intellectual inquiry and emotional response. The objective and theme of my work is to inspire a transcendent experience of profound beauty, mystery and awe, and provide unique insights into the nature of reality, life and consciousness.
Blorts
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Blorts are the abstract art entities that inhabit my work. Their purpose, form and function are aesthetic and benevolent. They live to inspire wonder and joy through their expressive behavior.
The name, Blorts, came about when I was naming a file that contained a process I built for creating complex shapes. The process involved rotating, translating and scaling implicit surface geometry primitives called metaballs, or blobby atoms, or blobs for short. I named the file BLORTS as an acronym for BLObs that have been Rotated, Translated, and Scaled. I started referring to the shapes I was making as Blorts and the name stuck. There is more to Blorts than complex shapes. In 1963, when I was four years old, I became fascinated by the Agave plants in my back yard. I would sit in front of them and marvel at their otherworldly forms. One day, they spoke to me telepathically and I experienced incredible virtual reality visions. I was transported to fantastic worlds that filled me with awe. The beings explained that they were The Ancient Elders From The Distant Future, and that one day I would help to create their ancestors. |
Visions like this one inspired my interest in consciousness, neuroscience, dreams, meditation, mysticism, and the transcendent experience. It also inspired my interest in technology, natural systems, evolutionary biology, artificial life and artificial intelligence.
Blorts are created using rule based systems and procedural methods inspired by natural systems. For Zen Parade and Blortasia, my focus was on creating interesting morphology, but the Blorts of Anandala are endowed with creative intelligence and exhibit complex emergent behavior. It is my hope that they will be the ancestors of the Ancient Elders of the Distant Future.
Blorts are created using rule based systems and procedural methods inspired by natural systems. For Zen Parade and Blortasia, my focus was on creating interesting morphology, but the Blorts of Anandala are endowed with creative intelligence and exhibit complex emergent behavior. It is my hope that they will be the ancestors of the Ancient Elders of the Distant Future.
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Shape Space
Shape Space VR is the name of the publishing company of my VR art experiences. Shape space also refers to the space of all possible shapes. My work is about exploring this space of possible shapes, and I often refer to my abstract worlds as Shape Spaces. Shapes are the building blocks of reality and consciousness. From an abstract perspective, everything, from subatomic particles to the entire universe, is shapes in space. |
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