How Distributed Computing Makes This Stunning New Immersive Art Exhibition Possible

Motion graphics artist Gavin Shapiro thinks art needs to be a lot less serious. In his three-minute film Wingin’ It, dancing pink flamingos and swaying penguins flit across the walls and floor in high definition. When I saw it recently—at immersive art gallery Artechouse’s Submerge exhibit in New York City—I was transported to an otherworldly pool party and couldn’t help but move my hips a little.

“My artistic language is satirical,” Shapiro tells me. “There aren’t enough people trying to be funny.” Shapiro, a 37-year-old based in upstate New York, first made a version of Wingin’ It in 2021, and he adapted it for this exhibit using the Render Network—a decentralized web of computing power that’s also behind high-profile displays such as the Sphere in Las Vegas. “It’s basically the reason I was able to make the piece,” he says.

Artist Gavin Shapiro (Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)

The Render Network relies on GPUs at large data centers, but more so on individuals who offer their home computing power in exchange for payment. All 16 computer animation artists in the exhibit used the service, which was provided to them at no cost.

Among them are Maciej Kuciara and Emily Yang, who won a 2025 Emmy for their short film White Rabbit. To adapt it for Submerge, they utilized the Render Network to enhance the resolution from 4K to 60K and create new imagery that the gallery could project onto three walls and the floor. All of this would have been “impossible” without the Render Network, Kuciara says.

Giving Independent Artists a Leg Up

Rendering is one of the final and most computationally intensive steps in creating motion graphics. “Basically, once you build the whole animation in a game builder, then you press ‘render,'” Shapiro says. From there, the computer uses the instructions provided by the artist and knits together the digital assets and image files. The process, which involves applying special effects and lighting to each frame, can take days, weeks, or even months on an artist’s personal computer.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)

The idea of tapping into others’ PCs emerged in 2015, during work on a project for Madison Square Garden’s largest screen, according to Render Network director Trevor Harries-Jones. “We realized the render would have taken all of Amazon’s West Coast GPU about a year to complete, and we had three months to get the project ready,” he says.

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So the team “dusted off” a patent that founder Jules Urbach received in 2007 for distributed computing networks and applied it in a new context. The Render Network has produced over 50 million frames since 2017, including scenes for major TV series such as Silo and Westworld.

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(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)

Artist Will Selviz (Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)

“As a decentralized network, we essentially stream the job and the software to a network of nodes in parallel,” Harries-Jones says. “By never storing it locally, we maintain a level of security that’s necessary for Hollywood and for other folks, meaning that we don’t actually know what’s being rendered on the network at any one time.”

But it’s also good for the little guy. Will Selviz, a Venezuelan-Canadian artist behind the exhibition’s Sin Agua No Hay Tiempo, says the Render Network allows him to “compete” as an independent creator. “In the future, this kind of IP,” he says, referring to his film, “will come from individuals, not studios.”