Quantum City: Levels of Uncertainty

Quantum City: Levels of Uncertainty is a real-time digital artwork that reimagines the city not as a fixed or mechanical system, but as a living, breathing organism—part biological, part cosmic. It listens to the city’s heartbeat through live data collected from across a country: air, noise, temperature, movement, and invisible energy flows. This is not a map of a city—it is a map of uncertainty. A city refracted through the quantum gaze.

This information is processed by custom-built software inspired by neural networks and quantum systems. The result is a constantly shifting visual landscape—a kind of data-organism—alive and responsive to the world around it.

In this work, the city becomes a kind of digital body, its invisible systems made visible through flowing patterns, glowing pulses, and evolving rhythms. Like a complex life form, it reacts to internal and external changes. It remembers, forgets, adapts, and evolves.

But it is also cosmic. The quantum layer of the piece refers to the idea that uncertainty and possibility are always present. Just as the universe is built on probability and entanglement, so too is the city. It is not a machine, but a field of forces—shaped by the interactions of people, technologies, data, and nature.

Quantum City invites you to think of urban space as something more than buildings and infrastructure. It is a planetary-scale nervous system—a networked consciousness—where technology, environment, and human experience are deeply intertwined.

This work asks: What kind of entity is the city becoming? If it is alive, what are its senses? What does it dream of?

As you watch the city unfold in waves of light and form, you’re not just observing data—you’re witnessing the pulse of a living, quantum city.

Data & Learning
The artwork leverages a custom-built real-time system (STANZA.API) , focused on Saudi Arabian weather, and pollution data from ninty cities. Using unsupervised machine learning algorithms, particularly Adaptive Resonance Theory 2 (ART 2), it constantly adapts without losing previously acquired patterns. At its core, a neural network processes these data streams, forming recursive patterns—patterns within patterns—that reflect the complex systems of a nation. As data changes, new nodes emerge within the network, showing growth and transformation. These nodes are dynamically influenced by live weather feeds, pollution fees  and environmental inputs.

Technology

• Backend: Node.js (STANZA.API), with the neural network ported from C to JavaScript.

• Learning Model: Adaptive Resonance Theory 2 (ART 2), supporting continual learning and behavioral clustering.

• Display: Optimally experienced using up to three large screens or projectors. An active internet connection is required for real-time functionality.

• Output Format: JSON-based data visualizations.
  

Data Sources

• Weather: Nationwide metrics including temperature, wind speed/direction, precipitation, humidity, and pressure.

• Pollution: Real-time data per station (GPS), including Carbon Monoxide, Nitrous Oxide, Ozone, Sulphur Dioxide, Temperature, Wind, and Humidity.

THE SERIES ONLINE CLICK TO ENTER

Quantum City: Levels of Uncertainty (V1)

Quantum City: Levels of Uncertainty (V2)

Quantum City: Levels of Uncertainty (V3)

Quantum City: Levels of Uncertainty (V4)

Quantum City: Levels of Uncertainty (V5)

Supported by DAF Diriyah Arts Futures Riyadh. While artist in Residence. 2025

Exhibition. Available for exhibition. Contact me for inquiries....best shown as multi screen <-> multi projector experience using good PCS and need internet connection..

Keywords. AI, CITY, DATA, REAL TIME, GENERATIVE, ART, DATA PAINTING, MACHINE LEARNING