Isaac Clarke

For The Purposes of Rational Amusements is a custom made digital kaleidoscope that explores computer vision through fleeting diffracted images.  Kaleidoscopes have long fascinated artists and scientists alike, from Sir David Brewster’s 1817 invention, to computational explorations like Karl Sims’ Interactive Video Kaleidoscope (SIGGRAPH 1988), which used an Apple II to generate dynamic symmetrical visuals. Our work builds on this lineage by integrating contemporary computer vision techniques, bringing AI-driven segmentation into the logic of kaleidoscopic transformation. Our piece uses machine vision to generate continuously shifting images, merging structured AI perception with fluid recomposition. [caption id="attachment_2587" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Collage of Images showing the design and testing of the digital kaleidoscope[/caption] This artwork uses the YOLO segmentation model to extract objects from a live camera feed, removing human figures and isolating fragmented elements from the environment. These segmented objects become the raw material for a custom digital kaleidoscope we made by embedding a circular digital display inside the traditional mirrored cylinder. The AI generated fragments are arranged into a rotating visual field, echoing the physical tumbling of glass and mineral pieces in an analogue kaleidoscope. The result is a hybrid system where AI is both a classifier and an aesthetic engine. The work critiques the structured logic of machine vision where AI sees the world as discrete, labelled entities. Instead we break these icons into dynamic, shifting imagery, seeing the interplay between computation and perception. [caption id="attachment_2588" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Screenshots of the software running image segmentation and collage for the digital kaleidoscope display[/caption] This piece reimagines generative digital art by grounding it in a fleeting, intimate experience. Unlike the usual flood of AI generated images, which exist as saved artefacts on hard drives and maybe never seen, our kaleidoscope produces visual compositions that exist only in the moment they are observed, not as digital files but reflected and refracted physical light. They are not recorded, and never repeated. Each viewer’s experience is intimate and unique, as the computationally fragmented world we live in is reassembled into a personal vision. This work explores how computational processes, often rigid and deterministic, can instead become materials for fluid, embodied ways of seeing and being, challenging the distinctions between digital, physical, and perceptual space. The work takes its name from Brewster's original patent for the design of the kaleidoscope, For The Purposes of Rational Amusements. [caption id="attachment_2585" align="aligncenter" width="2335"] View inside the Kaleidoscope of YOLO segmented images[/caption] https://isaacclarke.com