Robotic Art Research Presentation

[mfargas53]

Stelarc is a performance artist who chooses to focus his work on experimenting and enhancing the human body. The Third Ear in particular is an experiment on creating a realistic prosthetic of a human ear on an arm. This would serve nothing more than to have a microphone on your arm that would connect to a server on one's head. Although the functions of the Third Ear is almost equivalent to that of a microphone or AppleWatch, Stelarc uses this experiment to further push the ideas he created in his other experiments involving prosthetics. Other experiments include having a third arm or having an additional 6 legs. The functions of these pieces are not usually to further push the idea that technology exists to serve humanity, however it will allow the user to play with it. Stelarc allows his experiments to be interactive, however it limits its interactivity by having him interact with others while using the mechanical prosthetics. It serves to understand people's conceptual understanding of what options mechanical enhancements would provide for us and what this means for interacting with one another.

Stelarc's Third Eye, as he discusses, is not widely accepted by some individuals as it dances around the border of humanity and machine. This is a discussion on how mechanical prosthetics do serve to assist many in need of its advantages, however there comes a moment where the functions of these prosthetics become abused. Humanity continues to advance its research and investment into artificial intelligence. It seems as though humanity is obsessed with understanding and replicating the complexities of the human body. Things that come from this include the obsession with upgrading and improving on oneself through mechanical attachments to one's bodies. With the quickly advancing stages of technology, mechanical enhancements seem to be likely in the near future. This question on whether or not that is a good thing for our society has been a recurring theme throughout popular sci-fi shows I personally enjoy such as Futurama and Rick and Morty. It seems as though parts of our society is questioning whether or not we are ready or if it necessary to explore the extents of certain parts of technology. Stelarc seems to be pushing these lines for the sake of art and for this reason I chose to explore more of his work with the Third Ear.





https://youtu.be/ZNdV8Ilw9Nc?t=6m59s

[wen_ying_liu]

New Urban Species exhibition that consisted of kinetic sculptures created by Uram Choe. Each of his sculptures mimic movements and behaviors of living organisms found in nature. To do this, Choe painstakingly constructed each sculpture with wrought metal scraps, which are “joined together in movable parts.” Choe made his creations move by connecting the metal parts with custom CPU boards and motors, which generated movements by expanding and contracting the metals(1).
Each machine is like it’s own “organism,” because the motors Choe used to enable his sculptures’ movement make it seemed like they are breathing, swimming, or behave in a way that makes the audience think that they’re alive.

Why I chose this project: I was amazed that Choe was able to create sculptures that can mimic the movement and behaviors of living organisms through robotics, engineering and prosthetic technologies. His creations are extremely beautiful, mesmerizing and very lifelike despite being made out of metal scraps joined together and driven by motors. I thought it was innov

(1) http://fristartmuseum.org/news/detail/u ... -the-frist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC3kEAkfZSY

[yichenli]

What It Is
- immersive media installation visualizing relations among 1.7 mil documents in SALT Research Collections
- SALT Research Collections: both physical and digital, focus on art history of the 19th century to present in Turkish and Southeast Mediterranean, as well as Southeast Europe.
- SALT: contemporary art institution in Istanbul.
- media: machine learning, artificial intelligence, data, canvas, projection.
- documents are fed as images into an image-recognition network, which then recognized the features for each document.
- documents arranged into 1024 dimensional-space.
- the dimensions are reduced to a 2D or 3D projection, with visually-similar objects still neighboring each other.
- when the installation is "asleep", it "hallucinates" of previously non-existing documents generated by AI.

Behance: https://www.behance.net/gallery/5322589 ... e-Dreaming
Video: https://vimeo.com/218573298
(Short) Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNXeTl91PsE

Why I Chose It
- the environment is a robot in the sense that its algorithm automates a task without human interference.
- moreover, it is related to the idea of sublime.
- this algorithm accomplishes / attempts a task which a human cannot. immersed by the projection and its vast amount of data, the human is in awe.
- while the 19th century person feels awed in front of natural landscape. the 21st century person feels the same emotion of sublime when observing technology.
- OED definition of "SUBLIME":

affecting the mind with a sense of overwhelming grandeur or irresistible power; calculated to inspire awe, deep reverence, or lofty emotion, by reason of its beauty, vastness, or grandeur.

- SUBLIME - Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757):

terms as darkness, obscurity, privation, vastness, magnificence, loudness and suddenness, and that our reaction is defined by a kind of pleasurable terror.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/research/1226_10.jpg

- TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIME - Jeremy Gilbert Rolfe's Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime (1999):

the sublime cannot exist in nature today...the sublime can only inhabit, or be expressed by, technology – as technology is limitless and yet to be apprehended...nature is limited and finite, and that the sublime requires the limitlessness of technology.

- i.e. one feels terror and vastness of 9.11. while watching live coverage of the event on television.

- AMERICAN TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIME - David Nye, American Technological Sublime (1994):

...admiration of the natural sublime, as it might be experienced in the Grand Canyon, was replaced by the sublime of the factory, the sublime of aviation, the sublime of auto-mobility, the sublime of war machinery, and the sublime of the computer.

Reference
http://saltonline.org/media/files/refik ... galata.pdf
http://saltresearch.org/primo_library/l ... _en_US.jsp.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/5322589 ... e-Dreaming
https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/media ... ulsublime/
https://vimeo.com/218573298
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-br ... nd-sublime
https://www.nextnature.net/2011/07/the- ... l-sublime/

[hoangchristopher]

Huang Yi & KUKA
Huang Yi is a Taiwanese dancer, choreographer, inventor, and videographer. His work is originates from his fascination with the partnership between humans and robots. He blends movement with mechanical and multimedia elements to create a form of dance which corresponds with the flow of data, making the performer a dancing instrument.

Yi conceptualized and programmed the KUKA robot to dance with him. In his artist’s statement for his show “Huang Yi & Kuka,” at 3LD Art & Technology Center, he reveals that when he was 10, his wealthy parents became bankrupt and suicidal. Huang, feeling compelled to be a perfect child, masked his emotions to become obedient as robot.

Kuka is programmed by Huang and it takes him 10 hours to produce one minute of movement.

https://youtu.be/Q-sK-s_TzN0

[andros19.1]

Using technology we have developed ways of extending our natural human capabilities. This is the focus of artist Stelarc's work. His installations often involve robotic contraptions that augment his choreographic performances. Thus his pieces tend to evoke questions regarding the relationship between man and machine which become increasingly relevant in a time of accelerating technological advancement.

I was drawn to his artist due to a growing fascination with the idea of transhumanism, the belief that we can transcend beyond any natural limitation with the use of technology, often in the form of physical augmentation. More and more technologies are being developed that integrate into our bodies more naturally and help us function better. Although I am generally in support of this, it has lead me to wonder if there is anything that we may be losing in this process of enhancing ourselves and a fear that we may be rushing into something which we may not fully understand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYtMlNq1SsM
http://stelarc.org/projects.php

https://www.massdevice.com/second-sight ... l-implant/

[chen.lawr7]

Emily Beckius
Aurelia 1+H2 / proto via sonification by Robertina Sebjanic
Art project exhibited at Ars Electronica in 2016, consisting of audio visual performance.
https://vimeo.com/126787314

[annikatan]

Eunoia derives from the Greek word meaning “beautiful thought”. This project is created by conceptual artist, Lisa Park, from New York. She is a recipient of New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in the category of Digital/Electronic Arts. Park received her Masters degree in in Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2013. In her recent works, Park uses biofeedback devices (heart rate sensors, commercial brainwave headsets) to display physiological measurements as auditory and visual representations.

For the Eunoia project, Park uses a commerical EEG (brainwave sensor) headset to obtain real-time feedback of my brainwaves and emotional reactions. It tracks the emotional values (frustrastion, excitement, engagement, meditation) to transform her brain activity into streams of data. With the cognitive data activity, the data becomes translated into sound waves that create vibrations in the pools of water placed atop speakers. The project is comprised of 48 speakers with aluminum plates in various sizes, all containing pools of water.

Powerpoint: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... sp=sharing

Source: http://www.thelisapark.com/#/eunoia/

[yositayeerong]

Overview:
ROBOCHOP is an interactive installation designed by Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram. The robot consists of one arm and a heated wire cutting part that is mounted to the floor. The robot’s arm holds a 50 centimeters square cube foam and moves over the surface of the wire cutter. The motion that the arm moves in are inputted by users from all over the world. This installation was placed at a convention called code_n, which is a digital innovation platform where digital pioneers display their work. During the convention, the team allows internet citizens to control one of the robot’s arm to carve anything they want. Users can access ROBOCHOP’s application through their mobile phone or desktop’s internet browser to send in their designs and requests. If the user’s design is chosen to be carried out then their masterpiece will be mailed to them post convention.


Why I chose this project:
I chose this robotics project because it’s a fun combination of 3D modeling using robot’s arm and the internet browser. The interactivity makes the installation a lot more intriguing because users are given the opportunity to actually control one of the robots’ arms from the comfort of their home. I also think that the connectivity and exchange of data displayed in this installation is fascinating and really shows how physical the digital world can be. Aside from that, this installation also fits the course well because it’s a great mix of art, design, and engineering.

[admjahnke]

Why this project?:
The project I am presenting is entitled Bit.Fall by artist Julius pop. I saw this piece live in, 2012 in Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art. Witnessing this piece in person inspired me to explore art and tools, within the digital realm, like I had never considered before.
Overview:
The installation is connected to the internet, and it is powered by an algorithm that selects words that appear most frequently on international news feeds. When selecting the words, Popp’s algorithm discards meaningless units in speech, like “and” and “so.”
A bot, or software that collects data based on this algorithm, then shows a group of words extracted according to frequency of exposure on a news feed, which is then processed to form meaningful secondary data, or information. Bits, the minimum unit of data, compose data which is processed to form words, the pieces of information. These words are expressed by control software through ejector nozzles, both of which are designed by the artist, in forms and arrangements of physical basic units such as droplets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKFwqTn4MCQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg9LWsfqqrk

[stevenhoward]

Overview of the project:
Artist Paul Ferragut designed and 3D printed skateboard trucks that included object orientation devices within the base plates of the trucks. Attaching the trucks to a skateboard, Ferragut proceeded to execute skateboard maneuvers while collecting data from the skateboard trucks as they were in motion. He then visualized the collected data from the skateboard trucks to portray the motion of skateboard tricks in a 3D form, eventually 3D printing those forms into sculpture.

Why I chose this project:
Skateboarding has been a part of my life since I can remember. I've rarely seen skateboarding analyzed from an artistic perspective other than through magazines and graphics that are designed for the bottom of skateboards. I loved how the artist conceptually presented the motion of skateboard tricks in a formation that I had never considered. I believe the project could be further expanded upon to comparatively display the different styles each skateboarder acquires through their practice.

https://www.autodesk.com/pier-9/residen ... alizations
http://www.instructables.com/id/Skatebo ... lizations/