As a science, creating robotics that are self aware is a field that is on the verge of creating artificial intelligence. Hod Lipson has a great TED talk in which he introduces two robotic experiments that touch on self awareness and evolution. One is a four legged machine that becomes self aware and teaches itself to walk. It is a fascinating and somewhat scary thought that we can create machines that have an understanding of a goal and not only have the means to reach the goal, but have the means to teach themselves to reach the goal.
As an art, this inherent knowledge within the robot can create a poetry that cannot be recreated with inanimate objects. The Robotic Chair by Max Dean, Raffaello D’Andrea, and Matt Donovan is a great piece of work in which the chair falls apart and pieces itself back together. The strong metaphor relies heavily on the self awareness of the object.
As an object, the chair has been a constant and trustworthy partner in the history of civil society. We depend on the chair to support our bodies as we depend upon the earth beneath our feet. The Robotic Chair stands in for the individual and a society over the course of a lifetime – falling apart, falling down, gathering oneself together, picking oneself up, again and again. The Robotic Chair articulately and concisely reminds us on a grand scale that there is magic – that there is hope.
Despite the potentially scary outcome of science (in the wrong hands) taking artistic ideas to create a apocalyptic science fiction thriller, this robotic chair reminds us that we are good at adapting to unfortunate situations and whatever bad situations we create, we have the means to piece ourselves back together.
Check out the video on their website as it is much more dramatic.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 1:11 pm and is filed under design, humanity, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I agree with Hod Lipson (Cornell University) and his bio-inspired robotics approach: that we have to get away from the idea of designing autonomous systems manually, and instead let these systems evolve and learn like children. That is how complex behaviour emerged in the biological world, and that is how it has to be done if we want to replicate any higher level of intelligence.
The robotic chair is a great example of what happens when a diverse set of skills are put together under a high goal. It’s a beautifully implemented artists’ vision.
Here is another, more creepy video of a walking robotic chair.
I agree with Hod Lipson (Cornell University) and his bio-inspired robotics approach: that we have to get away from the idea of designing autonomous systems manually, and instead let these systems evolve and learn like children. That is how complex behaviour emerged in the biological world, and that is how it has to be done if we want to replicate any higher level of intelligence.
The robotic chair is a great example of what happens when a diverse set of skills are put together under a high goal. It’s a beautifully implemented artists’ vision.
Here is another, more creepy video of a walking robotic chair.
May 15th, 2008
9:20 am
@per: I think our problem with that, though, is then it seems as the development could be taken out of our hands. If we allow robots to evolve then there is potential that we as humans would lose control…. and we all know that humans don’t like to lose control.
Following the lead of creepy walking robots…
@per: I think our problem with that, though, is then it seems as the development could be taken out of our hands. If we allow robots to evolve then there is potential that we as humans would lose control…. and we all know that humans don’t like to lose control.
Following the lead of creepy walking robots…
May 16th, 2008
10:13 am
For anyone living in Vancouver, this chair is now showing at the Contemporary Art Gallery. I suggest that you check it out. :)
http://www.contemporaryartgallery.ca/
For anyone living in Vancouver, this chair is now showing at the Contemporary Art Gallery. I suggest that you check it out. :)
http://www.contemporaryartgallery.ca/
July 1st, 2008
1:30 am
@connor: I was just going to say the same thing! The gallery is open Wed-Sun, 12-6pm, and located on 555 Nelson at Richards st.
@connor: I was just going to say the same thing! The gallery is open Wed-Sun, 12-6pm, and located on 555 Nelson at Richards st.
July 10th, 2008
4:26 pm