{"id":172188,"date":"2026-02-10T18:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172188\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T18:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:29:13","slug":"csuf-collaboration-uses-ai-to-help-visitors-get-personal-with-art-installation-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172188\/","title":{"rendered":"CSUF collaboration uses AI to help visitors get personal with art installation \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Visitors can always view the new Lightwall piece of art on the wall at the California Center for the Arts from a distance.<\/p>\n

Consisting of hand-scappled geometric shapes and prisms on a white background with three rows of four clear acrylic cubes, it is an interesting piece of abstract art on its own merits.<\/p>\n

However, when the visitor walks up to Lightwall, it becomes something else altogether.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The rotating acrylic cubes reflect light that is projected from points around the wall\u2019s
\nframe. (Photo courtesy of Cal State Fullerton)\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The piece incorporates light, sound and texture for an interactive AI experience. (Photo courtesy of Cal State Fullerton)\n<\/p>\n

\"Developed<\/p>\n

Developed by artist Rita Sus, left, in collaboration with technologist Zach Rattner and students from Cal State Fullerton, Lightwall
\nintegrates kinetic sculpture, custom electronics and artificial intelligence to create an environment that responds in real time to
\nvisitors\u2019 movement and sound. (Photo courtesy of Zach Rattner)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

The rotating acrylic cubes reflect light that is projected from points around the wall\u2019s
\nframe. (Photo courtesy of Cal State Fullerton)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Equipped with radar, sensors, flashing lights that glint off the rotating acrylic cubes and real-time artificial intelligence that initiates dialogue with the viewer, the artwork is anything but static.<\/p>\n

A collaborative piece by artist Rita Sus, technologist Zach Rattner and the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Cal State Fullerton, Lightwall is an interactive composition that responds to the visitor\u2019s movement and voice.<\/p>\n

A sign next to Lightwall invites visitors to \u201cTalk to the wall. It\u2019s listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHello, it\u2019s good to see you,\u201d Lightwall says in a clearly robotic voice when approached.<\/p>\n

Lightwall can tell you its name, who created it and answer more esoteric questions about its purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe art is responding to us,\u201d said Christopher Ryu, a computer science professor who oversaw the project as one of the faculty leaders.<\/p>\n

Behind its simple exterior and plain frame, Lightwall is abuzz with activity. Unlike many AI art installations elsewhere, it requires no cloud dependency and runs off a single Mac minicomputer.<\/p>\n

As a result, the information and interactions with Lightwall remain offline, on-site, personal, private and unique to the visitor and those in the room.<\/p>\n

Organizers say the self-contained design makes Lightwall portable and available for tours, collaborations or future institutional partnerships.<\/p>\n

Reanimation<\/p>\n

Art installations using digital art, computers and AI programs are nothing new. In the 1960s, artist Harold Cohen developed a program named Aaron using artificial intelligence software to create fine art that he debuted in 1974. His work has toured museums such as the Tate Gallery in London and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.<\/p>\n

Since then, AI-generated art, including \u201cinteractive\u201d pieces, has proliferated from small museums to large public art displays.<\/p>\n

A presentation of work by the late Cohen and Aaron ran until last year at the Whitney Museum in New York and let visitors watch the computer \u201ccreate\u201d art.<\/p>\n

However, Rattner said the CSUF project veers away from existing projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to create a new space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

By integrating one-on-one personal relationships, particularly with discussion and dialogue between the art and the viewer, Rattner said, \u201cI think we\u2019re exploring where no one is going.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a space about which Rattner, an AI innovator for the past decade in business uses, has thought about a lot.<\/p>\n

Rattner says it\u2019s about \u201cUsing AI not to replace creativity, but to make human experiences richer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryu said one of the exciting possibilities of AI is its ability to interpret objects and reanimate them by \u201cimagining\u201d what the artist thought and even how the object might see itself.<\/p>\n

This is part of the reason he is intrigued by the interactions Lightwall will have with visitors as it grows and evolves.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople love art,\u201d Ryu said. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to imagine what the artist is thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rattner said AI can add a dimension to art appreciation.<\/p>\n

He likes the idea \u201cto have paint have a personality and have a conversation with it. If you could reanimate a rock, what would it do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Or as Ryu put it, \u201cAny dead object we care to communicate with, we can get any object to communicate if we enable it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Role of the artist<\/p>\n

Sus, who is the creative force of the physical shell of Lightwall, was intrigued by the \u201cbalance of human touch, craft and the machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my first project in six years as a visual artist that has used AI,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is a tool, and there is no universal use,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While as an artist, Sus is limited to scalpels and brushes and other physical implements, she says \u201cAI doesn\u2019t have that limitation. You can utilize it as a tool in any way you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, although AI is able to amass massive amounts of data that has been expressed by humanity over the ages through its art, debate about creative spark, the soul of art and artist and its relationship with AI remains in flux.<\/p>\n

Ryu said he is interested in studying AI and so-called creativity.<\/p>\n

Akshat Desai, a graduate research assistant, worked on the architecture of Lightwall\u2019s \u201cbrain,\u201d specifically, the \u201cpersonality engine and hardware bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has its own knowledge,\u201d Desai said of Lightwall, as well as a kind of lyric nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it will answer in a poetic way if the question is out of its domain,\u201d Desai said. \u201cIt might hallucinate if a question is out of context.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a demonstration of an interaction with Lightwall, Rattner asked, \u201cAre you happy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA spectrum shifting a quiet grace, stillness found in this luminous space,\u201d Lightwall answered.<\/p>\n

Artists!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visitors can always view the new Lightwall piece of art on the wall at the California Center for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,2627,7,2628,2306,23,611,77],"class_list":["post-172188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-cal-state-fullerton","tag-california","tag-fullerton","tag-higher-education","tag-local-news","tag-orange-county","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}