Marc Engenhart

Written By Christopher Imlay

Prof. Marc Engenhart is a designer, musician, artist and author.

He worked on projects in the fields of applied communication design, interaction design, digital systems, speculative critical design, transmedia, media arts, performative arts and music. Various national and international design awards.

Since 2015, teaching and research at universities in the fields of communication design, human-computer interaction, AI and design, visualisation and typography.

Since 2014 co-founder of Playtime Album Sessions and 2019, founder of the critical speculative design futuring blog The Unthinkable Hub and founder of the Designing with Artificial Intelligence (dai) conference.

2022 co-author of the publication of the first standard work ‘Design and Artificial Intelligence’ at DeGruyter/Birkhäuser, Basel/Boston. Works and lives in Stuttgart and Berlin.

 

FIND Marc Engenhart. VIA website, instagram
Videos by Marc Engenhart
Four Kinds of Horses (Bright-Side Mix)
Four Kinds of Horses (Bright-Side Mix)

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Marc Engenhart

SONG: Four Kinds of Horses (Bright-Side Mix) FROM i/o

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Marc Engenhart

SONG: Four Kinds of Horses (Bright-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info:

These two videos should be seen as one. A diptych which was inspired by the outstanding concept of the i/o album with its dark and bright-side mixes of each song. This perfectly made and delightful work, shaping the same composition into different perspectives as two different journeys into one song, highly resonated with me to create a vision giving those two mixes two visual views as two perspectives into a synthetic natural world which is almost the same but different.

They were realised by an informed, intelligent system which was precisely briefed to create my artistic vision in a custom framework. By this system, I created a text script proposal on visual scenes which are initially based on Peter Gabriel’s original lyrics and rewrite them correlating my brief. This brief included precisely picked and curated descriptions of literary figures, poets, philosophers, directors, painters, sculptors, visionaries, technologies, film materials, and an aesthetic framework, which I had in mind to brief how the synthetic scenes should basically look. This visual script let the system output two versions as two dimensions, two visual perspectives which we as humans can resonate and contemplate us in. 

When you perceive the synthetic images of just pure natural scapes and views with the empowerment of the sound and Gabriel’s original readable lyrics, there is not only the bright and dark visual interpretation but also a highly sensitive layer of empathy and individual perception and interpretation. This empathy pattern is precisely rendered into any frame by a so-to-speak empathy module which can trigger semantics in human perception for the bright version and for the dark version. You will perceive this immaterial layer differently in both versions. It’s highly sensitive. You will feel the vibration; it’s coming out of the ground.

Song info:

Four Kinds of Horses is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2024. This is the Bright-Side Mix, by Mark 'Spike' Stent.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel and Richard Russell.

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

“Four Kinds of Horses actually began on Richard Russell’s project ‘Everything Is Recorded’. He’s a friend (and founder of XL Records) and he asked me to pop into his studio to explore some ideas with him. I came up with some chords, melodies and words on top of a groove he was working on. We tried a few things that didn't altogether work to his satisfaction, so it lay dormant for quite a while. Then I started playing around with it again and changed the mood and the groove and something else began to emerge with a much better chorus.

I was working with Katie May in the studio one day and she put together a sort of trip hop vibe which I liked a lot. I felt it belonged and had an attitude, that led me into this other place. Then we grew a lot of different textures and the song evolved into a very different being.

It’s a little different from the rest of the album but I think it's got a strong character.”

-pg

Four Kinds of Horses (Dark-Side Mix)
Four Kinds of Horses (Dark-Side Mix)

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Marc Engenhart

SONG: Four Kinds of Horses (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Marc Engenhart

SONG: Four Kinds of Horses (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info:

These two videos should be seen as one. A diptych which was inspired by the outstanding concept of the i/o album with its dark and bright-side mixes of each song. This perfectly made and delightful work, shaping the same composition into different perspectives as two different journeys into one song, highly resonated with me to create a vision giving those two mixes two visual views as two perspectives into a synthetic natural world which is almost the same but different.

They were realised by an informed, intelligent system which was precisely briefed to create my artistic vision in a custom framework. By this system, I created a text script proposal on visual scenes which are initially based on Peter Gabriel’s original lyrics and rewrite them correlating my brief. This brief included precisely picked and curated descriptions of literary figures, poets, philosophers, directors, painters, sculptors, visionaries, technologies, film materials, and an aesthetic framework, which I had in mind to brief how the synthetic scenes should basically look. This visual script let the system output two versions as two dimensions, two visual perspectives which we as humans can resonate and contemplate us in.

When you perceive the synthetic images of just pure natural scapes and views with the empowerment of the sound and Gabriel’s original readable lyrics, there is not only the bright and dark visual interpretation but also a highly sensitive layer of empathy and individual perception and interpretation. This empathy pattern is precisely rendered into any frame by a so-to-speak empathy module which can trigger semantics in human perception for the bright version and for the dark version. You will perceive this immaterial layer differently in both versions. It’s highly sensitive. You will feel the vibration; it’s coming out of the ground.

Song info:

Four Kinds of Horses is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2024. This is the Dark-Side Mix, by Tchad Blake.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel and Richard Russell.

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

“Four Kinds of Horses actually began on Richard Russell’s project ‘Everything Is Recorded’. He’s a friend (and founder of XL Records) and he asked me to pop into his studio to explore some ideas with him. I came up with some chords, melodies and words on top of a groove he was working on. We tried a few things that didn't altogether work to his satisfaction, so it lay dormant for quite a while. Then I started playing around with it again and changed the mood and the groove and something else began to emerge with a much better chorus.

I was working with Katie May in the studio one day and she put together a sort of trip hop vibe which I liked a lot. I felt it belonged and had an attitude, that led me into this other place. Then we grew a lot of different textures and the song evolved into a very different being.

It’s a little different from the rest of the album but I think it's got a strong character.”

-pg

Christopher Imlay https://www.command-x.com
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