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December 07, 2004

Robotlab

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Warming Up to Robots

Robotlab works with industrial robots in public spaces. It explores the relationship between man and machine by means of experimental labs, performances and installations. They try to create experimental forums in which the public has the opportunity to interact with robots and respond to their massive scale, movements, and mechanical sounds. ["Second Career for Old Robot: Art" in today's Wired]

For example, in the installation juke_bots two robot arms act like a DJ. Each machine is surrounded by records which they can select and pick up. In front of each arm a record player is positioned in a way that the robot can thread the records under its needle. Without taking off the record the robot can play and scratch, forward as well as reverse, speed up or slow down the music, and thus generate new sounds with their own characteristics. 'juke_bots' operates as an autonomous performance and as an interactive installation. On a panel the auditor can request certain records or scratch-styles from the machine-artist. By throwing money in a slot the robots play their own compositions.

Another example is motion_interchange: a visitor enters a space and stands across from a robot arm. As the person moves, the robot observes and simulates those movements himself. As this happens, a communicative exchange arises between man and machine that is simultaneously performance and interaction.

Their mutual referencing lies in their reciprocal observation: human eyes on the one side, video eyes on the other. Perceiving the movements of the person or machine opposite directly influences further behavior.

The machine can adopt several characteristics. Both the user and the machine have geometrical objects in their enviroment symbolizing various modes of behavior. If the person takes an object, then the robot takes the respective object as well, and through this exchange, further possibilities develop.

If the visitor adapts his body motion to that of the machine, then the robot can imitate the human gesture. The robot's abilities, however, cannot accomodate more complicated positions or faster movements. Depending on the exemplified behavior, the machine can either respond to the situation or break with his previous logic and find alternative means of expression. The results are never predictible; they depend on the performative behavior of the user.

Posted by jo at December 7, 2004 10:29 AM

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