People

James Cameron

James Cameron

Academy Award Winning Director and Co-Founder, Lightstorm Entertainment

Biography

James Cameron is an acclaimed film-maker and explorer. As director, writer, and producer he is responsible for some of the most memorable films of the past three decades: THE TERMINATOR, ALIENS, THE ABYSS, TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY, TRUE LIES, TITANIC, and AVATAR. AVATAR currently holds both the domestic and worldwide box office records having grossed over $2.7 billion at the global box office, beating the previous record holder, Cameron’s own film TITANIC, which held that record for 12 years. Cameron’s films have also earned numerous nominations and awards, most notably TITANIC’s 14 Academy Award nominations (a record) and 11 Oscars (the most any movie has received), including Cameron’s own 3 Oscars for Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Editing.  AVATAR won the Golden Globe for Best Director and Best Picture.  It was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won 3. Over the last 15 years Cameron developed cutting edge 3D camera systems for movies and documentaries, as well as for broadcast sports and special events. He was at the vanguard of the 3D renaissance that has transformed the movie industry in recent years.  He also developed unprecedented deep ocean exploration vehicles, lighting and 3D camera equipment. Most recently, Cameron led his eighth deep ocean expedition to some of the deepest trenches in the world. On March 26, 2012, he set the world’s solo deep diving record of 35,787’ in the Challenger Deep in a vehicle of his own design.,Cameron is a National Geographic Explorer in Residence, and recipient of their most prestigious award, the Hubbard Medal, as well as the Explorer’s Club medal for Explorer of the Year. Cameron is also passionately involved in sustainability issues, having founded the Avatar Alliance Foundation to take action on climate change, energy policy, deforestation, indigenous rights, ocean conservation and sustainable agriculture.  He has campaigned for indigenous rights and their struggle against encroaching industrialization in Brazil and Canada. His production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, has installed a 1-megawatt solar array on the roofs of several soundstages at Manhattan Beach Studios, to offset the power usage during the production of the Avatar sequels. Cameron also designed the Sunflower, a sculptural solar array that tracks the sun. In 2015, five of them were installed at MUSE – the progressive green-school founded by his wife, Suzy Amis-Cameron. The Sunflowers provide 100% of the school’s power. James and Suzy Amis Cameron also founded the Plant Power Taskforce to research and promote awareness of the impact of animal agriculture on the environment and climate. At Cameron’s farms in Canada and New Zealand, he is developing new methods for organic, ecological farming, including planting one of the largest permaculture “food forests” in the world.  Cameron Family Farms is one of the largest suppliers of certified organic produce in New Zealand, and is developing innovative technologies for the organic food industry. He is currently in preproduction for Avatar 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Cameron was previously a member of the 21st Century Council and The WorldPost Advisory Council.

composed by Arswain
machine learning consultation by Anna Tskhovrebov
commissioned by the Berggruen Institute
premiered at the Bradbury Building
downtown Los Angeles
april 22, 2022

Human perception of what sounds “beautiful” is necessarily biased and exclusive. If we are to truly expand our hearing apparatus, and thus our notion of beauty, we must not only shed preconceived sonic associations but also invite creative participation from beings non-human and non-living. We must also begin to cede creative control away from ourselves and toward such beings by encouraging them to exercise their own standards of beauty and collaborate with each other.

Movement I: Alarm Call
‘Alarm Call’ is a long-form composition and sound collage that juxtaposes, combines, and manipulates alarm calls from various human, non-human, and non-living beings. Evolutionary biologists understand the alarm call to be an altruistic behavior between species, who, by warning others of danger, place themselves by instinct in a broader system of belonging. The piece poses the question: how might we hear better to broaden and enhance our sense of belonging in the universe? Might we behave more altruistically if we better heed the calls of – and call out to – non-human beings?

Using granular synthesis, biofeedback, and algorithmic modulation, I fold the human alarm call – the siren – into non-human alarm calls, generating novel “inter-being” sonic collaborations with increasing sophistication and complexity. 

Movement II: A.I.-Truism
A synthesizer piece co-written with an AI in the style of Vangelis’s Blade Runner score, to pay homage to the space of the Bradbury Building.

Movement III: Alarmism
A machine learning model “learns” A.I.Truism and recreates Alarm Call, generating an original fusion of the two.

Movement IV: A.I. Call
A machine learning model “learns” Alarm Call and recreates A.I.Truism, generating an original fusion of the two.

RAVE (IRCAM 2021) https://github.com/acids-ircam/RAVE