Myth to Quantum: A Media Art Nexus compilation 2016-2025
Presented by NTU Museum as the inaugural exhibition for the curatorial platform, INDEX: Stories in Motion, this exhibition features works by Mark Chavez and Ina Conradi. This showcase brings together screen-based projects by Chavez and Conradi, co-founders of Media Art Nexus, that trace a journey from mythology to the speculative space of quantum science.
Grounding the exhibition are their collaborative explorations in digital animation, generative AI and immersive installations. Their practices demonstrate how media art bridges scientific research, artistic imagination and cultural knowledge, while reflecting on current-day issues. This compilation commemorates Media Art Nexus’s role as an interdisciplinary platform for art, science and public engagement.
Watch Assoc. prof Ina Conradi and Mark Chavez introduce MYTH TO QUANTUM on IG
Artists
Mark Chavez, a former faculty member of NTU’s School of Art, Design, and Media, utilises real-time animation and experimental techniques to connect quantum theory with cultural archetypes and lived experiences.
Ina Conradi, a multidisciplinary artist and Associate Professor at NTU’s School of Art, Design and Media, is concerned with expanding the language of painting into dynamic, interactive and cinematic forms that visualise scientific and philosophical ideas.
Artworks
Echoes, Whispers and Memories
Directed and animated by Mark Chavez, Executive Producer Ina Conradi, Music by Tate Chavez
Post-processing by Tan Yu Yan Cheerie
AI-generated animation, Audio-Visual Live Performance
3:00 min (variable up to 20:00 min)
Echoes, Whispers and Memories reimagines entropy not as decline but as a creative force of transformation. The work explores how memory, matter and energy dissolve and reassemble in urban life. It reflects on contemporary crises, the persistence of human presence and ideas around impermanence, cultural continuity and interconnection. The work has been presented at the 2024 City Digital Skin Art Festival across Asia, Los Angeles, and evolved further for Ars Electronica 2025.
Installation view of Echoes, Whispers and Memories, Mark Chavez and Ina Conradi, 2024-2025. Photo by Quek Jia Liang.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas: Mythic Landscapes / The Classic of Mountains and Seas: Fantastic Creatures
Directed and animated by Mark Chavez, Executive Producer Ina Conradi
Post-processing by Tan Yu Yan Cheerie
AI-generated / Experimental Animation
6:00 min / 11:53 min
This series reinterprets the ancient Chinese text Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) through AI-driven animation, bringing to life hybrid beings and patterned mythic figures. Bridging Southeast Asian heritage with algorithmic aesthetics, it presents a poetic encounter between ancient imagination and digital forms. Created at a formative moment in AI’s evolution, the works capture image transformations using early models that fused artistic style, prompts and experimentation to retell the mystical stories of this classic text.
Installation view of The Classics of Mountain and Seas: Fantastic Creatures, Mark Chavez and Ina Conradi, 2024. Photo by Quek Jia Liang.
Nocturne (Crepuscular Rays of the Moon)
Directed and animated by Mark Chavez, Producer Ina Conradi, Music by Tate Chavez, Dance and choreography by Victoria Primus
Post-processing by Tan Yu Yan Cheerie
Experimental Animation, created with Derivative TouchDesigner, Performance
21:00 min
Commissioned by SG:IO Tokyo (2017), Crepuscular Rays of the Moon was adapted into an immersive choreographed performance titled Nocturne, which premiered at Ars Electronica Festival 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The work acknowledges global uncertainty while signaling hope. It combines dance, audio-reactive visuals and emotive animation into a tribute to ancient spring rites of spring while meditating on the notion of renewal.
Installation view of Crepuscular Rays of the Moon, Mark Chavez and Ina Conradi, 2017-2021. Photo by Quek Jia Liang.
Quantum Logos (Vision Serpent)
Directed and animated by Mark Chavez, Executive Producer Ina Conradi, Music by Tate Chavez, Sci-Art Producers Bianka Hofmann and Bob Kastner
Post-processing by Tan Yu Yan Cheerie
Immersive Audio-Visual Installation
10:30 min
Quantum Logos (Vision Serpent) employs cultural archetypes and poetic imagery to represent the counterintuitive beauty of quantum physics. It premiered at Ars Electronica’s 40th Anniversary (2019) and was highlighted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and CERN’s OriginPhysics network.
Detail of Quantum Logos (Vision Serpent), Mark Chavez and Ina Conradi, 2019. Photo by Quek Jia Liang.
Quantonium
Animation and programming by Mark Chavez, Collaborator Ina Conradi, Music by Tate Chavez
Post-processing by Tan Yu Yan Cheerie
Audio-Reactive Animation, created with Derivative TouchDesigner
Duration Variable
Quantonium reflects on mechanical matter and space through vibrant audio-reactive visuals. Its shifting geometries respond to sound, immersing audiences in a dialogue between structure and resonance.
Installation view of Quantonium, Mark Chavez and Ina Conradi, 2017. Photo by Quek Jia Liang.
The Rose
Animation and programming by Mark Chavez, Collaborator Ina Conradi, Music by Claude Debussy (Clair de Lune, performed by Peter Frankl, Vox recording c.1962)
Post-processing by Tan Yu Yan Cheerie
Experimental Animation, created with Derivative TouchDesigner
5:10 min
The Rose is programmed as an animated pin-screen using six recordings of Debussy’s Clair de Lune. The work becomes an audio-reactive painting where sound and visuals interweave in poetic harmony. It was screened at Ars Electronica Festival 2016, The Cube QUT Brisbane, EPICentre and Data61 UNSW.
Installation view of The Rose, Mark Chavez and Ina Conradi, 2016-2017. Photo by Quek Jia Liang.
I Wish
Animation and programming by Mark Chavez, Producer Ina Conradi, Music by Philip Tan
Post-processing by Tan Yu Yan Cheerie
Experimental Animation, created with Derivative TouchDesigner
4:31 min
I Wish collects anonymous Twitter posts beginning with the phrase “I wish,” transforming private sentiments into a collective audiovisual experience. The work explores the poetics of social media and the intimacy embedded in digital communication.
Installation view of I Wish, Mark Chavez and Ina Conradi, 2016. Photo by Quek Jia Liang.
Info
Myth to Quantum: A Media Art Nexus compilation 2016-2025
9-30 September 2025
Location: INDEX, North Spine Plaza Level 1