The Landscape of Intelligence is a multi-media artwork born from Painting Music, an AI–art collaboration that honours the imagination and legacy of the Victorian mathematician and computer pioneer Ada Lovelace.
Ada not only wrote the first computer program but had an extraordinary vision for its potential. The Analytical Engine of Charles Babbage (19th century inventor) inspired Ada into thinking that mathematical operations could be performed on other things besides numbers. Ada not only saw what Babbage's Analytical Engine could do, but recognised what it could achieve, by understanding that numbers can represent anything: letters, symbols or musical notes. Nearly two hundred years ago, and a century before the invention of the computer, Ada explicitly describes a machine that could compose music.
The Landscape of Intelligence and Painting Music stand as a tribute to Ada and her partnership with Charles Babbage, which laid crucial groundwork for modern computing. The artwork highlights Ada’s ability to look beyond mechanical calculation and envision a space where imagination, creativity, and symbolic reasoning could be expressed through machines. By embodying her early concept of machine-composed music, the project connects past and present innovation and emphasises the role of creativity in shaping technological futures.
I am a multi-disciplinary artist, filmmaker, and engineer whose work blends visual art, performance, technology, and AI. Born in the Netherlands, I hold an MSc in Civil Engineering from Delft University of Technology and a PhD in Coastal Engineering and Computational Fluid Dynamics from the University of Aberdeen. My technical background shapes my interest in explainable and sustainable AI, and my artistic practice seeks to merge scientific inquiry with storytelling. The Landscape of Intelligence and Painting Music are key examples of this approach.
- the artist