Universal Everything's 'Chameleon' Celebrates Fondazione Giorgio Cini Archive

On September 6, 2024, from 11 AM to 6 PM, the London-based art collective Universal Everything will premiere 'Chameleon' at the Biblioteca del Longhena on Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The video work, commissioned by Fondazione Giorgio Cini, features a constantly morphing figure that explores the foundation's digital archive, including documents, photographs, and artworks produced through the ARCHiVe project, which has scanned the entire island in high resolution. Critic Ennio Bianco describes Chameleon as a creature that reflects the landscape without mimicking it, transformed by the magnetic force of the island's cultural history. The project was developed with Ars Electronica, T6 Ecosystem, and the European Commission's S+T+ARTS platform. Using AI software, the collective tracked an actor's movement through the foundation's spaces—including the Sala degli Arazzi with Veronese's 'Nozze di Cana' and the Vatican Chapels—and replaced the environment with a CGI figure. Matt Pyke, founder and creative director of Universal Everything, explained that they aimed to map the visual environment onto a human body sculpturally. Founded in 2004, Universal Everything has collaborated with Apple, Chanel, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Radiohead, and exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum, MoMA, and the Sundance Film Festival. They also created the moving image identity for the 2012 London Olympics.