Beings learning resource

Beings is a playful, funny and surprising exhibition. It encourages us to be curious, to explore and to experiment. Take your time in the exhibition, Each unique artwork has secrets to reveal and rewards time and attention. When you're activating the interactives, the more you move and play and dance, the better.

The thirteen colourful artworks on display include:

• four interactive experiences: Future You (2019), Into The Sun (2022), Kinfolk (2024), Symbiosis (2024)
• eight generative videos playing on a loop: We Are All Unique (2022), Migrations (2024), Tribes (2018), Presence (2013), Machine Learning (2018), Maison Autonome (2022), Transfiguration (2024), Friends (2024)
• a procedural generative artwork that is creating new and unique characters live in the gallery: Infinity (2021)

A peek behind the scenes

When you are in the gallery, don't miss the drawings and videos that take you behind the scenes to show you how these extraordinary digital artworks first began with very simple drawings outlining very big ideas.

Using your map, and making sure you check out the labels on the walls, take the time to connect with each artwork.

Collect the artworks on your Lens so you can reflect on your visit and find out more when you get back to school.

We've provided a prompt for each artwork. You can also download our worksheet if you want to make notes, but you may be too busy moving, playing and exploring! You may prefer to download it after your visit to reflect on what you saw and learned.

1. We are all Unique (looped video)

What makes these creatures so cute and endearing?

• Think about all the different elements that contribute to this effect.

2. Future You (interactive)

The more you move, the more complex your creature becomes.

• After creating your morphing creature, take a look at the design drawings on the wall to the left. How close is your interactive experience to the original design ideas?

3. Kinfolk (interactive)

Join the fun in front of the screen and take control of your own bizarre being. Want to try new colours and textures? Just jump to shed your digital skin and start again.

• What do you notice about colour, texture and movement? What movements did you try out and how did your movements change your creature?

4. Infinity (generative video)

This artwork is being created live and each character is unique. These hypnotic beings are born from code through a process known as ‘procedural generation’. To make this work, the creators set design rules and then programmed an algorithm (set of instructions) to randomly select combinations.

• Think about the different characters you can see and suggest some of the rules set by the developers.

5. Migrations (looped video)

As the sun rises and sets, over 50 kaleidoscopic critters stomp, glide, trot, hop and swoop across the landscape. Universal Everything used motion capture data to track the movements of a bevy of real-life animals.

• What animals can you identify, and what is it about them that you recognise?
• What do you notice about the background and how does it make you feel?

6. Tribes (looped video)

Have you ever been in a high place looking down on crowds of people moving about? Did you notice how they form patterns, as they move together and apart? This work isn't interactive but is definitely immersive as you watch the crowds grow, disperse and move.

• What do you think this artwork is communicating about people and society?
• Read the wall text to find out how it was made.

7. Presence + Machine Learning ((looped video)

These artworks are different in style from everything else in the gallery, but share the same interest in recognisable movement (biological motion). Presence shows human form in digital motion. Its lines, trails and fluid shapes on a black background were created from a motion-capture performance of dancers.

Machine Learning features a robot animated through motion capture and integrated into the live-action video of choreographer and dancer Dwayne-Antony Simms to suggest the robot is mirroring and learning from the human.

• Look at the drawings included in this section and notice how these hand-drawn illustrations suggest human movement.

8. Maison Autonome (looped video)

In this fantasy fashion parade, 150 delightful characters strut towards you in a wild range of forms, sizes and materials. Each model has their own walk, personality, and unique costume.

• What is it about the characters' movements that tells us they are models on a catwalk rather than ordinary people walking down the street?

9. Transfiguration (looped video)

From translucent bubbles to lava, rock and flames, this ever-changing figure transforms before your eyes. This artwork was created with CGI (computer-generated imagery) and Houdini, a VFX program used in Hollywood. The sound of the footsteps was created with Foley, a technique that uses recordings of everyday items such as rocks, spoons and rubber bands to create sounds on screen.

• Describe the way sound is used in this artwork and what it adds to the walking creature.

10. Into the Sun (interactive)

Make this natural landscape come alive just by interacting with it. Once you enter the space, plants mimic your gestures to germinate and grow, leaves lean towards you and flowers blossom, obscuring the warm digital sun.

• This artwork looks quite different from everything else in the exhibition. How would you describe its look and mood (how it makes you feel)?

11. Symbiosis (interactive)

You and a friend move slowly and gently to become soft bubble-like beings that can gently merge into each other. Step away and see what happens!

• Universal Everything use a lot of soft edges in their creations, and these symbiotic beings are the softest of them all. Why do you think the creators have used so many soft shapes and textures in the animations and interactives? What is their effect?

12. Friends (looped video)

Made out of simple geometric shapes, these beings become characters through their eyes made out of tiny black shapes and their cute voices. Notice how their eyes blink at different times. That's decided by an algorithm but it helps give these shapes individual personalities.

• Create your own geometric shaped creatures by arranging and stacking the coloured shapes at the activity station.

Positive perspectives

The Universal Everything collective create optimistic artworks with a positive message about shared experiences and what connects us as humans. It is weird, fun and funny that the artists explore these human qualities through characters created out of code. These strange, beautiful and unique characters make us think about what makes us human and alive, while also encouraging us to celebrate differences. These artworks could be described as utopian, which describes a society of opportunity and hope.

This joyful message is also communicated in the way we experience the artworks in the gallery. Not only do we have the fun of watching the strange creatures change and transform in surprising ways in the looped video works, but we actually become part of the process of transformation when we move, dance and play with the interactive works. We bring these artworks to life, often with unpredictable and surprising results – even for the artists who created them.

Creative coding

The playful beings created by Universal Everything are born from code. Many artworks are a product of generative design. This means the artist has used code to create a set of design rules or algorithms that guide the computer as it generates a dynamic and surprising artwork.

By adding an element of randomness and unpredictability, the artists design artworks that take on a unique life of their own to connect with visitors in unexpected and unique ways. The artists at Universal Everything describe their relationship with the computational systems they create as a form of collaboration.

Each time we engage with one of Universal Everything's interactive artworks, we see something new. The body tracking installation Future You has over 47,000 possible variations to its robotic shape and form, and people's real-time interactions introduce even more variations.

Infinity is an infinitely generative artwork featuring an endless parade of peculiar characters in surprising shapes, sizes, textures and colours. It is created through a process known as ‘procedural generation’, which is often used in videogames to create animated characters, digital landscapes, textures, and even sound effects – all in real time. Universal Everything launched the first version of Infinity as a live stream on their website and YouTube channel.

Soulful technology

Universal Everything are not only interested in creating exciting and innovative effects and experiences, but also in giving their zany computer-created characters appealing human qualities. They say they give their characters a soul, which is a way of saying their characters have personalities. This makes each of them seem unique and helps us relate to them with empathy. When we have empathy for someone, or something, we feel we understand them and their feelings. It is so interesting these digital artworks can create this feeling, when they don't look at all like any actually living person or creature.

Anthropomorphism describes the human tendency to attribute human characteristics to non-human things, and many of Universal Everything's artworks explore this idea. In these artworks, colour, shape and texture are used in abstract ways, but one or two elements give a sense of humanness. In Friends, the coloured geometric shapes are not at all human, but the addition of black dots give the impression of eyes and creates a connection with viewers. In the case of the soft-coloured shapes of We are all Unique, their personalities emerge from the combination of black-dot eyes, soft edges and bouncing movements.

Matt Pyke is fascinated by the phenomenon of pareidolia, the human tendency to make meaning out of shapes in the environment. A common example of this is when people see a face on a house, in nature or even in a power point.

Movement

Many animated films and games are celebrated for their 'lifelike' animation but the works in Beings reveal that we can connect with strange and abstract shapes and textures, if they move in a way we associate with living creatures such as people and animals. These recognisable movements are called biological motion. In artworks such as Maison Autonome and Infinity, the characters have distinctive movements that give them a personality even though they may be created out of unexpected shapes, textures and colours.

1. Visit the Universal Everything website to find out more about what they do.
2. Matt Pyke chose to call his studio Universal Everything, when it was just him! The studio now shrinks and grows depending on the work they are creating. Do you like the studio's name? What does it make you think of and imagine?
3. Universal Everything describe themselves as a collective of media artists, experience designers and future makers. What do you think an experience designer does? What do you think a future maker does?
4. Why do you think ACMI has called this exhibition Beings? How does this relate to the ideas behind the artworks?
5. What are some of the ways Universal Everything creates a connection between the artworks and the people watching, playing and interacting?
6. As well as being interested in coding and technologies, the creative people at Universal Everything are fascinated by human nature and what makes people think and behave in particular ways. Find out more about: anthropomorphism, pareidolia and biological motion. Explain what they mean to a friend with examples from Universal Everything's artworks.
7. As a class create a glossary that provides definitions for: interactive artworks, immersive artworks, projection mapping, digital art, body tracking, generative video, CGI, game engine.

Transfiguration (2024)

Each of the artworks in Beings has been created by a team of skilled specialists including architects, engineers, designers, cinematographers, animators, musicians and developers. But no matter how complex, each artwork starts from a single hand-drawn line, proving that creativity begins with an idea, not code or computers. Matt Pyke, the creative director of Universal Everything, usually comes up with the initial idea as a series of simple sketches and then collaborates with a huge team of experts to bring his ideas to life.

1. Watch the video of Transfiguration and look at the concept drawing/design sketch (above).
2. What are the main ideas communicated in this drawing and how are these ideas communicated?
3. Design your own set of zany and unexpected characters using different shapes, colours and textures.
4. If you're a primary student, use the template (below) to design your own Monster Mix and Match book activity. Share with a friend.

Into the Sun (2022)

When bringing an idea to life, the Universal Everything team think through the viewer or user's experience of the artwork. In fact, one of the terms they use to describe what they do is: "experience makers".

1. Watch the video of the artwork and look at the design sketch (above). Compare the experience and the design sketch. How close to the original idea is the artwork?
2. Take another look at the video and describe the elements that stand out for you.
3. When developing and sharing the ideas for Into the Sun, the Universal Everything team were wanting to "represent the Japanese word ‘komorebi’ – the moment in the early morning or late afternoon when sunlight shines through the leaves of trees". Explain how this idea of komorebi has influenced the final design of the artwork.
4. Working in pairs or in a group, design the concept for an interactive or immersive artwork based on a new and unique idea and that your users will find lots of fun. Use the worksheet provided (below) to outline your ideas and communicate them with your creative team.

We are all Unique (2022)

Sound is a very important aspect of the artworks in Beings. It helps create the mood, gives an extra dimension to the characters' movements and adds to the way we connect with the artworks. Sometimes we don't even notice the sound but it is still very much part of the experience of the artwork.

1. Watch the video of We are all Unique (above) with the sound turned off and then with the sound. Describe the music and sound effects used. Explain what the sound adds. What are some adjectives that describe the mood that the sound creates? How does it help us to connect with the characters in the artwork?
2. Watch this clip from Transfiguration (you can also scroll back up to the Design section to watch it.) The sound effects were created using Foley sound which is a technique that uses recordings of everyday items such as rocks, spoons and rubber bands to create sounds on screen. Describe how sound is used in this artwork and what it adds to the visuals. You can find out more about Foley sound here.

When designing ideas for an artwork, Matt Pyke and his team don't impose limitations based on whether the idea is achievable. Instead, they build the idea and then work with their team to see how they can use new and emerging technologies to achieve the planned result.

The Universal Everything team use technology in unexpected ways to get the result they want. When Presence was developed in 2013, the studio used motion capture technology For instance, they used gamemaking software Unity to build the generative interactivity of Future You. To create the surfaces and textures for Transfiguration, Universal Everything used CGI and Houdini, a procedural visual-effects program used by Hollywood studios such as Disney.

1. Find out more about the design of your favourite Beings artworks on ACMI's website. Just enter the name of your artwork into the search.
2. The Universal Everything website is a treasure trove of behind the scenes information about each of their artworks.
3. The team at Universal Everything spend time on research and development and create prototypes in response to unexpected questions and challenges. One of these challenges was thinking about how to visualise different kinds of pain. This could make it easier to explain how you are feeling to a nurse or a doctor. Using this idea as inspiration, create a concept sketch for visualising an emotion or feeling that is hard to explain in words. (You can also use the character designs for Inside Out as a reference.)

The curious characters and beings that Universal Everything create in their artworks seem strangely alive and have unique personalities that make them special and endearing. Their surprising shapes, colours, textures and movements give them a quality that encourages us to wonder about what and who they are.

In this section, we use the ideas and imagination that motivate Universal Everything's approach to creating odd and appealing characters as stimulus for storytelling, character design, descriptive writing, animating and worldbuilding.

The characters in We Are All Unique seem to be performing for the camera before disappearing back into their own world. What do they say to each other when we are not watching them?

1. Dialogue – Choose two of these sweet bouncy characters, imagine what they might say to each other and write this as a short dialogue.
   1. Share with others and compare your approaches.
   2. In pairs, read your dialogues out loud, with each of you taking on the role of one of the characters. What do you think your character sounds like? When you read your part of the the dialogue try to match your voice to the character's personality.
2. Comic book – Use drawn images to turn your dialogue into either an entertaining comic book, or a storyboard designed for an animated version of your dialogue. Remember that you can add more meaning to the words through the visuals. You can download either our comic book template or our storyboard template (below) to help you get started

Download a template

Future You (2019)

The strange robotic shapes that appear when you interact with Future You are all different and become more and more complex as you interact with them. What's more Future You has 47,000 different variations! Each strange being is made up of three stages of evolution stimulated by your movements before it collapses and disappears.

1. The Future You world – Using the video (above) as a reminder of the appearance and behaviour of the robotic lifeforms in Future You, imagine the world and society they come from. What does it look, sound, feel and smell like? How is the society organised? Where do these strange beings live?
2. Design – Using the strange creations that emerge in Future You as inspiration, design your own future self as a mechanical creature and its three evolutionary stages. For inspiration, you can check out one of Matt Pyke's designs (above).
3. Science fiction – When engaging with the Future You interactive, we believe that we are controlling these beings actions through our movements. But maybe we are under these beings' control, enticed to use our energy to help them evolve. Write a paragraph (or even a whole story!) where you reveal the hidden power of these machine-like creations.

Maison Autonome (2022)

1. Descriptive language – Share the strange magic of one of the stylish creatures in the Maison Autonome fantasy fashion show using descriptive language. Describe shape, colour, pattern, texture, movement, size, and what the characters make you think, feel and wonder.
2. Character design – Design three or four extraordinary characters for your own fantasy fashion show. Make them as different as possible from the ones in Maison Autonome.
3. Animation – Use flip-a-clip to animate one (or more) of your characters. This is a very simple animation app, and we have provided instructions (below) to get you started. In the example animation, a character transforms into a curious creature before your eyes. This is a fun approach, but it is up to you to decide how you are going to animate your character.

Infinity (2024)

Universal Everything's curious creatures are often presented in walking mode, and often they are walking as part of a parade. In works such as Infinity and Migrations, the structure of the parade, adds comedy, variety and surprise, as we wait for the next curious creature to leap, stroll or scurry past.

1. Building vocabulary – As a class, watch a minute or so of the parade of creatures crossing the screen in Infinity (see above). What verb best describes each different character's way of walking and moving? You need to be quick, but set yourself the challenge of describing each character's movement with a different verb. Write the verbs down so you can compare with others in your class when the time is up. You might like to familiarise yourself with a list of movement verbs such as this one before you begin.
2. Group animation – Join with others to make an animated parade using claymation or cut-out animation.
   1. Design your own special character thinking about colour, shape, texture and size.
   2. Now work together to plan your character parade. In what order will the characters move? How will they move? Try to plan different movement styles to make your parade as interesting and surprising as possible.
   3. Choose a colourful back ground to complement your characters' journey across the screen.
   4. Record sounds that help build your characters' personalities. The sounds for Friends were made by the creative team recording their own silly voices.
   5. Haven't made a stop-motion animation before? Follow our step-by-step stop-motion animation guide.

There are some very surprising things going on on Universal Everything's artworks. Evolving Machine-like creatures (Future You), textured figures that shed their skin (Kinfolk), migrating beasts with weird and wonderful 'fur' (Migrations), and a being that continually changes its state (Transfiguration).

1. News report – Imagine you are a news reporter writing an online report about the arrival of one of Universal Everything's curious creatures in your town.
   1. How are you going to describe it?
   2. What happened when it appeared? How did people respond when they saw it? What happened next?
   3. Is the arrival of the character something for your readers to be concerned, excited or curious about?
   4. Is there any other information they need to know? How are you going to finish your report?
2. Documentary – David Attenborough is excited to hear that some previously unsighted and undocumented unique creatures have been discovered at ACMI. He has asked you to make a wildlife documentary about them.
   1. You can observe and record these creatures in the wild at the exhibition at ACMI.
   2. If you can't make it in to the exhibition, you can find out more on the Universal Everything website and YouTube channel.
   3. Here's a checklist to help you get started.
   4. Remember to add some great commentary and atmospheric sound.

1. Ekphrastic poetry – Did you know that there is a name for poems that have been written about visual artworks? Ekphrasis means 'description' in ancient Greek and ekphrastric poetry is where a poet describes both an artwork and their response to it. Choose your favourite Universal Everything artwork and write a poem that communicates: what it looks and sounds like, how it makes you feel, and what it means to you.
   1. Poetry focuses us on what is most important or essential about an idea. So, it can be helpful to get started by writing out your ideas in whole sentences and then removing any unnecessary words or descriptions.
   2. Once you have got to the heart of what you want to say, think about different word choices and if there is a better or simpler way of communicating your ideas.
   3. Read your poem out loud. Do you want to change some words to make it flow more smoothly?
2. Character poem – The characters in Beings are all a bit mysterious. Who or what are they? Where have they come from? Where are they going? What do they think and feel?
   1. Choose a character from one of the artworks and write a short poem, where you ask and/or answer some of the questions that arise in your imagination when you look at it.