Curious Machines
28. Nov. 2012, 15.00 bis 16.00 Uhr Interface Culture Lecture Room, Kollegiumgasse 2, 3.OG
Vortrag von Petra Gemeinböck und Rob Saunders im Rahmen der Interface Cultures Invited Lectures Series.
In this talk, Petra and Rob will introduce their art-science collaboration, which develops autonomous robotic environments. The works explore the performative potential of self-motivated machines and the questions they raise. Interested in using robotics as a medium for intervention, their installations are on an architectural scale and embed robots into the walls of an institution. The robotic agents are programmed to be curious, and as such are intrinsically motivated to explore their world and study its human inhabitants. Using their motorised punch, they physically manifest and inscribe their data and networking processes into our built environment. The works turn the walls into a milieu for machines to express their desires, and open up an ambiguous scenario on the edge of two world views: in one, it’s a playground for curious machines, in the other, a destructive invasion of our environment.
Petra Gemeinboeck (AT/AU) and Rob Saunders (UK/AU)
live in Sydney, where Petra is Senior Lecturer in Interactive Media Arts at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, and Rob is Senior Lecturer in Design Computing at the Design Lab, University of Sydney.
Petra’s practice in robotic art, interactive installation, and virtual environments explores the ambiguities and vulnerabilities in our relationships with machines, making tangible the desires and politics involved.
Rob's research engages with creative agency and computational curiosity, using techniques from machine learning, robotics and visual intelligence to explores the role of curiosity in creative systems.
Petra’s works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Ars Electronica Festival, Archilab in Orleans, FR, Thessaloniki Biennale MCA Chicago, ICC Tokyo, OK Center for Contemporary Art in Linz, AT, and the Centre des Arts Enghien at Paris.
Their collaborative works have been shown at venues such as the GoMA Brisbane, the Powerhouse Museum Sydney, and the MuseumsQuartier 21 in Vienna. They were finalist for the National New Media Arts Award 2012, GoMA, Australia, and received an honorary mention at the Digital Turku, Live 2011 Grand Prix Award, Finland.
Interview with artist residents Petra Gemeinböck (AT/AU) and Rob Saunders (UK/AU)
www.aec.at/futurelab
www.impossiblegeographies.net
web.arch.usyd.edu.au
