ENG
Within the realm of human-machine interactions, Social Robotics deals with the underlying complex rules and roles of the society. Such robots do not assume servile and mundane tasks, as in an assembly line, but rather connect with humans in their very own context. For instance, we find robots as learning assistants, as healthcare caregivers or as receptionists. The Blind Robot is about the understanding of the degrees of engagement, would it be either intellectual, emotional or physical, that are generated when a Social Robot intimately touches a person. The Blind Robot comprises of a typical robotic arm equipped with an articulated hand. In this installation, visitors will be invited to sit in the front of this machine and engage into a nonverbal dialogue with this machine. The robot will delicately explore the body – mostly the face – of the visitor in a manner that recalls what the blind humans are doing to recognize a person or an object. On a nearby screen or projection, the machine will then produce a visual rendering – a window to the soul of the robot – of what its fingertips have “seen”. At its onset, The Blind Robot is a minimalistic piece of mechanical engineering. The rationale is to start from a recent known cultural artefact – the robot arm – and transform it from a high precision tool into a fragile, imprecise and emotionally loaded agent. The Blind Robot project is not concerned with the aspect of use (technicality of touch itself ) but rather with the consequences for bodily objectivity and the subject’s awareness of those consequences. Our hypothesis is that the social role (a blind) will augment the act of touching via the potential of the created emotional connection between the human visitor and the robot. The Blind Robot becomes an artistic and critical investigation of the scientific developments in Social Robotics. Louis-Philippe Demers deluje kot performer in avtor instalacij velikega formata. Glavni področji njegovega dela sta zabavna robotika in interakcijsko oblikovanje. V preteklih dveh desetletjih je sodeloval pri več kot sto umetniških in odrskih produkcijah ter zgradil preko 300 naprav. Njegove projekte srečamo v gledališčih, opernih hišah, na postajah podzemne železnice, v muzejih umetnosti in znanosti, na glasbenih dogodkih in razstavnih prireditvah. Demers je poučeval na Oddelku za digitalne medije in razstavno oblikovanje ter scenografijo na nemški Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe – akademski ustanovi, članici svetovno znanega centra za umetnost in medijske tehnologije (ZKM, Nemčija). Nedavno se je pridružil raziskovalnemu centru za zabavo in interakcijo ter novoustanovljeni šoli za umetnost, oblikovanje in medije na tehnološki univerzi v Nanyangu (NTU, Singapur).
ENG Louis-Philippe Demers makes large-scale installations and performances. His
main areas of work are entertainment robotics and interaction design. Over the past two decades, he has participated in more than one hundred artistic and stage productions and has built more than 300 machines. His projects can be found in theatre, opera, subway stations, art museums, science museums, music events and trade shows. He was Professor of Digital Media and Exhibit Design/Scenography at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, the academic institution affiliated to the world renowned Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM, Germany). Recently he joined the Interaction and Entertainment Research Centre and the newly founded School of Art, Design and Media at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore).
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