Beck goes interstellar with ‘Hyperspace: A.I. Exploration’

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Beck

Beck has gone hyper-deluxe in the visual expansion of his November album, “Hyperspace.” Calling on the assistance of occupants of interplanetary craft — our local international space research site nestled in the nearby hills, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) — mission “Hyperspace: A.I. Exploration” enlisted Osk Studio and producers Candice Dragonas (Prettybird) and Sydney Golombek to sift through hundreds of thousands of publicly available images from various space explorations using A.I. programs created and tailored for the occasion. As best explained in the project’s announcement, the software was “unique A.I. utilizing computer vision, machine learning and Generative Adversarial neural Networks (GAN) to learn from NASA’s vast archives. After training on hundreds of thousands of images, videos and data points from NASA’s space exploration research and missions, the Hyperspace A.I. then began creating its own visions of our universe.”

For example, the video for “Saw Lightning” integrates images from NASA’s Viking 1 Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Curiosity Rover, all churned out to create a hyper-real journey through the terrain of the red planet. “I think each song is kind of a different way that different people ‘Hyperspace,'” said the singing, songwriting jet-setter. “We escape from the reality that we’re all dealing with.” Your father’s “Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus” this is not. The collection also features two new tracks: “Dark Places (Soundscape)” and an acoustic cover of Chris Bell’s “I Am The Cosmos (42420),” visually featuring black holes and stars. Enter all 13 portals here from outside the site.

||| Watch: The videos for “Saw Lightning,” “Dark Places (Soundscape)” and “I Am The Cosmos (42420)”

||| Previously: “Everlasting Nothing,” “Saw Lightning,” live at FivePoint Amphitheatre, live at McCabe’s, live at Ohana Fest, live at the Hollywood Bowl, “Wow,” “Dreams,” live at the Orpheum, Morning Phase live for KCRW, live at Coachella 2014, Song Reader at the Disney Hall, Sonos Studio exhibition, Portland Cello Project (Song Reader), live at the Santa Barbara Bowl, “Heaven Can Wait” (with Charlotte Gainsbourg), live at Club Nokia