ArtBots is pleased to announce that the fifth international ArtBots exhibition for robotic art and art-making robots will take place at the Trinity College Science Gallery in Dublin, Ireland on September 19-21, 2008. Creators of talented robots are invited to submit their work for possible inclusion in the show. Deadline: May 1, 2008.

We have no fixed idea of what qualifies as robotic art; if you think it’s a robot and you think it’s art, we encourage you to submit your work. Regardless of whether it’s hi-tech, low-tech, or neg-tech, we’re interested in the ideas you’re working with, not just the gear. Proposals for workshops, performances, and other kinds of participation are also welcome. Continue reading

Synapse: Collaboration between the arts and sciences has the potential to create new knowledge, ideas and processes beneficial to both fields. Artists and scientists approach creativity, exploration and research in different ways and from different perspectives; when working together they open up new ways of seeing, experiencing and interpreting the world around us. For the past decade, the Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT) has provided opportunities for artists and scientists to work together. Through Synapse, and in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts, ANAT offers residencies, the Synapse Database and now ANAT is pleased to announce its latest initiative: a moderated elist discussion on contemporary art and science collaborations in fields including bioart, artificial intelligence, robotics, climate change and space, amongst others. You can subscribe here. Continue reading

Fatherboard, the SuperAvatar, is an avatar that - escaping from the virtual worlds (or from the computer generally speaking) - forms into a physical shape. It is similar to cyborgs - but is not a cyborg - and it is made out of the (recycled) hardware components of the computer where it comes from. Fatherboard steps in to the “real world” and starts interrelating with the human beings (the audience). The essence of its dialog with humans is to be found in the idea of a confrontation between the “artificial” intelligences and the ones of their creators. The whole show is theoretically based on the concepts expressed in the Polymorphic Intelligence (see Polymorphic Intelligence 1, 2) and the Big Sieve theories, by Luigi Pagliarini. Continue reading

Edward Ihnatowicz was a Cybernetic Sculptor active in the UK in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. His ground-breaking sculptures explored the interaction between his robotic works and the audience, and reached their height with The Senster, a large (15 feet long), hydraulic robot commissioned by the electronics giant, Philips, in Eindhoven in 1970. The sculpture used sound and movement sensors to react to the behaviour of the visitors. It was one of the first computer controlled interactive robotic works of art. Continue reading

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When I heard several months ago that some of my MIT colleagues and students were helping to stage a performance of Live Action Anime, I knew I had to be there. I anticipated the experience with a kind of “only at MIT” amusement — not sure what to expect but knowing that the results would be dazzling.

The performance, Madness at Mokuba, opened with a spectacular battle between two giant robots (see the image above) staged against the backdrop of projected anime images and accompanied by an awe-inspiring soundtrack of metallic clanks and engine sounds which instantly reminded me of my first experience watching RoboTech and Star Blazers several decades ago. Continue reading

Bionic Arduino is a set of four 3-hour classes in November 2007 hosted by Machine Project and taught by Tod E. Kurt. It is an introduction to microcontroller programming and interfacing with the real world using the Arduino physical computing platform. It focuses on building new physical senses and making motion with the building blocks of robotics, using Arduino as a platform.

In the class, participants are shown and experiment with the Arduino’s capabilities and learn the basics of common microcontroller interfacing, such as: Continue reading

Dorkbot SoCal 25 - Dave Bullock, Rama Hoetzlein, Barry Hertz Sr. :: December 1, 2007; 1:00 pm :: Machine Project, 1200 D North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, CA.

Dave Bullock: HDR Photography - Today’s digital cameras have a limited dynamic range compared to film. If you shoot a photo of a landscape with a beautiful cloudy sky, your landscape will be properly exposed, but your clouds will be washed out or vice-versa. High-Dynamic Range photography allows you to circumvent your sensor’s limitations by taking multiple photos with different exposures and combining them on your computer. Continue reading

Threatbox.us by Marie Sester :: November 17, 2007 - January 13, 2008 :: Fargfabriken, Laboratory of the Contemporary, Stockholm, Sweden.

Threatbox.us is an art installation with web surveillance interface in which a movie frame “attacks” visitors via a robotic video projector and computer vision tracking system. The beam of light that technologies of vision cast upon the world is also always the line of sight for a weapon with which to destroy what the beam presents as its ‘objective’ — its target. The moving projection becomes an aggressor. The merging of these technologies of vision and of destruction result in our “military-entertainment” industry. Threatbox.us seeks to question the ideological onslaught of American military-entertainment politics. Continue reading

Fastforward on New Media Art: Robots - with France Cadet / Christian Faubel / Pascal Glissmann e Martina Hofflin / Ken Goldberg / Leonel Moura / Kenneth Rinaldo / Robotlab :: curated by Laura Bardier :: November 8 - December 3, 2007 :: Palazzo delle Arti Napoli [PAN], Via dei Mille 60, 80122 Napoli.

A recurring image in contemporary society is the growing speed of digital information. Technology evolves and absorbs information at a dizzying speed, whereby knowledge is transmitted to intelligent machines in a process which seems to be leading us towards a post-human hybrid state. The exponential evolution of information technologies may produce the means by which artists will be able to create beyond their own vision and knowledge. Continue reading