Germany « emocao art.ficial

Autoportrait

 by robotlab (Germany, 2002)

Using a pen, a robot makes human portraits, and then destroys the images – an act that questions, among other things, the universality of authorship and the anthropocentrism of artistic practice.

See also another artist-robot: RAC3 – Robotic Action Painter, by Leonel Moura.

robotlab is a group founded in 2000 by Matthias Gommel, Martina Haitz and Jan Zappe, artists interested in the experimental and artistic use of industrial robots – machines normally used in factories. This collective works in partnership with the Karlsruhe Art and Media Center (ZKM), in Germany.

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Media art is (re)defined in an enthusiastic debate

By Ana de Fátima Sousa, August 12th 2002
photos by Carol Lambert

The term media art was the major focus of the first round table at the [ emoção art.ficial ] symposium. Guest speakers Alex Adriaansen (V2_ Organisation/Holland), Cláudia Giannetti (MECAD/Spain), Arlindo Machado (PUC/Brazil) and Monika Fleishmann (MARS/Germany) showed consensus around the infinite possibilities to define such term. All of them stated that this new art expression is an unstable, malleable field, full of variants, and those are its greatest quality. Creativity emerges only in the midst of unstableness.

One of the highlights of the round table was the sharp talk delivered by Dutch guest speaker Alex Andriaansen, one of the founding artists of V2_ Organisation. He is the one who defined media art production as an unstable media. “Unstableness gives art objects and processes the quality of dynamism, the possibility of transformation,” he states. According to him, the “unstable” state can be seen as the force that unbalances the homogeneous structure of things. “Conflict is definitely necessary to create media art and also to transform the world,” he believes.

Andriaansen also addressed the new vision of the man-machine relation. While man used to operate the machines in the old times, today he works with them. “There is an intense network of collaboration, the “machemistry” (machine + chemistry) relation, as the theorist calls it.”

The talk by the Brazilian Professor Arlindo Machado was also another highlight in the debate. “I particularly think that the term media art has been interpreted in a stricter way, wherein the only association is that of the technical aspect of using electronic equipment with the making of beautiful works. What does this new artist produce actually? He deprograms the machine, gives technological devices a new function,” he says. The machine, according to Machado, now operates in a transgressive manner, performs a new role and is socially inserted. “Critics tied to tradition describe media art as something ephemeral, epidermal, superficial. However, smart are those critics who see the new art as a natural path of transformation of human expressions”, he declares.

An involving and didactic talk given by Arlindo was closed by making reference to German thinker Walter Benjamim, who – in his time – had already forecast the eternal shock to define art. “The issue is not to know what we can consider as being art or not. What really matters is to realize that the mere existence of new products leads old definitions to crisis and requires thinking to be reformulated”.

The clear passion of all speakers for the theme [media art] was evident in the talk addressed by MARS director, Monika Fleishmann. “IBM influences our lives much more than the 40 years of communism, which we have practically forgotten. Nevertheless, our relationship with technology is intense, it involves us thoroughly, makes us feel eager to transform the world,” she said firmly.

Good news for technicians, artists and curious people in general came with the representative for MECAD – Spanish media center – Cláudia Giannetti. The institution’s Escola Superior de Disseny awards scholarships for master’s degree and regular courses. Registrations are open and can be made through the institution’s web site [www.mecad.org].

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Virtual communities and the construction of reality

by Carlos Costa, august 13th 2002

photos by Carol Lambert

Two works developed by Gilbertto Prado and by Itaulab’s team – Imaterialidades and Desertesejo – were the theme of the artist’s talk, multimedia, which marked the beginning of the third session of he symposium [Emoção Art.ficial], this afternoon. The works, which create virtual environments, were the subject of the reflections about the critical analysis of the construction of reality, an issue exhaustively portrayed by art.

Prado also explored the theme of the session, Networks and Virtual Communities, making references to two other works by Brazilian artists – Jornada Xamânica and Vozes. To close the talk, Gilbertto Prado chose to read a text that, among other issues, analyzed the role of users in virtual environments, “the masters and part of the environments they visit “.

Ravi Sundaram, member of CSDS, from India, took the opportunity to outline the history of networks that have always connected men, particularly in India. From the beginning of the Press, through the telegraph and the train, virtual networks have always connected people. The scholar thinks that shopping malls, airports and other similar places work exactly like virtual communities.

Then, Mônica Narula, one of the founding partners of the Sarai media center, in India, showed the audience the website Opus, which works with an open platform for users to build virtual communication networks.

The trustee of Transmidiale, Germany’s Internacional Artmedia Festival, Susanne Jaschko, talked about the strength of the young culture that creates artemedia, which is fun and playful. “Children developed their own wireless means of expression”, she said. According to the trustee, the two main forms of expression of that culture are clear in the games and perceptible in the music. Among other works, she showed the audience a video about writing music based on the sounds of a game boy.

Finally, Anne Nigten, manager of V2_Lab, from Holland, showed works of the laboratory, such as an interactive game based on the work of the painter Bosch Hieronymous, created as a solution to replace the site of the museum that houses the collection of the works of the artist.

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Virtual environment has to be touching

by Ana de Fátima Sousa, augusta 14th 2002

photos by Carol Lambert

On Wednesday’s (14) first floor, the symposium [art.ficial emotion] discussed the process of creating interfaces and immersing environments. All works and proposals presented mainly focus on inserting extremely human elements to generate interactivity, interest, and emotion. Without a human narrative, the virtual environment is only an empty space.

One of the hearty defenders of this line of thought is the artist Elizabeth Vander Zaag (Banff Center/Canada). “Why are soap operas so successful on TV? Because they show new stories daily, and always translate feelings like hatred, love, and surprise. Spectators mirror themselves on the stories and can entirely dive into the plot “, she explained. According to Zaag, it’s the same in cyberspace. “All and any work produced for men has to conquer them, give them the feeling of being able to interact with that world “.

Elizabeth Zaag is the creator of Talk Nice [which is in the exhibit on until October at Itaú Cultural] in which two girls chat with visitors. The piece works on the user’s voice modulation. Depending on vocal intonations, the girls “accept” spectators and establish a more friendly communication.

Another work presented by the Canadian was developed in 1990 and provides hints on how to speak softly to a man. A simple inexpensive piece that – says the creator – uses much healthier interactivity. That is, interactivity that brings interface and “friendly” narratives. You can check on here.

The German Joachim Sauter (ART+COM) presented a series of projects created at the institution he runs. One of the presentation’s most beautiful pieces was Time Traveller, in which the user can browse by landscape images or films shot in different times. One of the options is to take a panoramic look at a vast field in Berlin that, when overlaying the image of the past, goes back to the time in which the Berlin wall solidly stood out in the scenario and divided Germany in two.

If there are possible recipes for the use of this immersing multi-user environment, the also German Wolfgang Strauss (MARS) has one. According to him, there are five steps: 1 – user identifies the structure and rules; 2 – user plays with them (rules and structure) 3 – user reflects on how action takes place; 4 – users notices the presence of other participants; 5 – users try to communicate.

The Brazilian cyberspace was exposed in the lecture of Suzete Ventturelli (UnB). The professor presented her projects, which range from interfaces to multi-users to her recent research on the language of games, and also brought projects from other country artists such as André Parente, Gilbertto Prado, Diana Domingues, Rejane Cantoni, Daniela Kutschat and Tânia Fraga.

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The Endophysicist Against the Evil God

by Luiza Fagá

The fourth meeting of Emoção Art.ficial 3.0 Symposium received as a guest German physicist Otto Rössler. Having renowned works in the areas of medicine, mathematics and technological art, he is a specialist in what he calls endophysics. “We should thank his father for not allowing him to become a monk,” joked mediator André Vallias.

Rössler started the lecture by saying that his science drifts on a fragile limit between the sublime and ridicule. “Endophysics is a joke, but it is a serious joke,” he said, with the same good mood in which he conducted the whole presentation.

The physicist, always didactically, drew a simple equation to describe our relation with the outer world. The universe as a whole would be the sum of the observer and the object. Therefore, to understand the object, the observer should place himself on the other side of the equation. Thus, the object would be equal to the universe, subtracting from it the observer. That is, to objectively analyze any object, the observer would have to be positioned outside the process, which is impossible since he is an indissociable part of it. “You only have access to the differences between you and the rest of the universe. That is perspective,” he concluded.

The god of the world
Archimedes’ Point is a solid point, where one could push the world with a lever. The concept sounds abstract, but the physicist was able to transform it into something palpable with one example. “I think you know it, it’s called a laptop.” On a computer’s screen, we have an artificial universe that can be reprogrammed. He explained that this artificial universe is made up of particles obtained by calculations. “We tend to define ourselves by age, appearance. But, in truth, we are also made up of particles.” With the sum of apparently obvious statements, Rössler came to an unexpected conclusion.

The world would be a machine and we, slaves of the operator. But, actually, we would be the operator, parts of a system that is self-controlling. According to him, the attitude toward that, is essentially, passive. To accept the condition of being at the mercy of a superior sphere, an “evil god”, would be “disturbing determinism”. “But you have the chance to respond. If the world is a prison, we need to know how to get out,’ he said. This confrontation would distinguish those who faced it from their fellow creatures. Otto Rössler concluded, “The great issue is if a program can force the programmer to respond. In my opinion, it can.”

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Scribbles of an Endophysicist

by Kiel Pimenta and Luiza Fagá

Otto Rössler is a strange character. Strangely charismatic. A mixture of a mad scientist, a prophet of the apocalypse and a disseminator of goodness. “Benevolence is the opposite of cruelty,” he said. “That’s what the world needs.” Rössler shared his second participation in the Emoção Art.ficial 3.0 Symposium with technological artist Bill Seaman. Seaman is an artist and Rössler … an Endophysicist. Endophysics is the science of the inside, as opposed to exophysics. Is that clear?

Seaman started his talk with a question: are we electrochemical computers? To which, he answered that yes, we are a bio-computer. To him, a conscious computer is one which can be creative, has knowledge, synthetic emotions, etc. According to him, to build one, you have to “observe the functionality of a system and set up a system with the same functionality.” Seaman talked about the paradigm of the neo sentience and then focused on his concept of pattern flows that guides his work shown on Emoção Art.ficial 3.0: The Thoughtbody Environment Interface. He showed an image, which at first, would explain his theory. “Bill is the only one who understands this image”, said Rössler jokingly.

Now it’s the endophysicist’s turn to talk. “Do you want me to draw?” Yes, we do. On an overhead projector, the white haired man with tremulous gestures drew the crooked images as imprecise as his words. But as he himself said in the previous meeting, “endophysics is an assault on objectivity and reinforces objectivity.” He will take us somewhere.

The assault
Rössler started the class saying that artificial intelligence is a “dangerous territory.” But, calm down, endophysics is an assault on objectivity. In nature, “everything flows downwards, toward death. But along this path, small things happen.” He drew a diagonal arrow facing downward and, in the middle of the way between the top and the base, a spiral. To better explain it, the scientist changed the difficult vocabulary for sweet words. It would be like water, when sliding down the rocks of a waterfall. In some parts of the way, it forms a small whirlpool. “If you give it a chance, it can produce beautiful things, even life.” And whenever possible, life will reproduce itself. “It’s as strong as a young person for whom the world is opening up.”

Another way energy escapes from death is by going toward point omega. To illustrate it, Rössler drew an arrow pointing upward. Point omega, a concept developed by philosopher Teilhard de Chardin, resides on its top. The infinite target, the maximum level of improvement and evolution. “Where all creative energy is concentrated.” According to the endophysicist, that is where surplus energy converges.

The reinforcement
Scientist-prophet Rössler said that if evolution is successful during infinite time, point omega will be naturally reached. But this bridge, between the current stage and the last stage of evolution can also be built by science.

According to Rössler, the main difference between the physical explanation of evolution and Darwin’s theory is that the former understands evolution as an intelligent process that can be predicted by means of algorithms and, therefore, reconstructed.

If science can predict and reproduce the evolution of a being and take this evolution to its highest point, this might imply having “the entire cosmos developing itself aiming at an omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent being.” Endophysics reinforces objectivity. We arrived at benevolence and danger referred to by Rössler.

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10 Dencies São Paulo and 10 Lavoro Immateriale

by Knowbotic Research (Germany – Austria, 1998-1999)

10_Dencies São Paulo and 10_Lavoro Immateriale

The project involves twin installations: one with the Sao Paulo project (10_Dencies São Paulo, 1998) and another with the Venice project (10_Lavoro Immateriale, 1999). It explores the possibilities of urban intervention and interference in complex environments, creating a topological collage that mixes urban databases and statistics with the imagination of citizens. It is actually a study about mega-cities based on urban cartography collectively elaborated by experts and by the population.

See also Une Carte Plus Grande, Karen O’Rourke’s work that seeks to create mental maps of a city.

Knowbotic Research raises questions regarding the forces and technological systems that are superimposed on each other, annul each other and relate with each other to produce the information territory of the large urban agglomerations. Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Belgrade, which are inhabited by millions of people, were the cities of choice. In each one of them, the group develops the project with groups of architects, using the Web as their site. The first step, Tokyo, was accomplished in 1997/1998 and won the ARS Electronica award for art on the Internet.

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Place Ruhr

by Jeffrey Shaw, ZKM Center for Art And Media (Germany, 2000)

 

In this installation a rotating platform allows the viewer to rotate a projected image within a large circular projection screen and explore a three dimensional virtual environment constituted by an emblematic constellation of panoramic locations and cinematic events.

The work presents a virtual landscape containing eleven cylinders that show particular sites in the Ruhr area. The viewer can navigate this 3D space and enter these panoramic cylinders, inside each of which a surrounding cinematic sequence fills the projection screen and presents a 360 degree pre-recorded situation and acted event. 

The identity of each of the eleven sites is defined by its environmental scenography (both actual and composited) conjoined with the time based events that have been staged there. 

On the platform there is a column with an underwater video camera. This device is the interactive user interface, its buttons and handling allow the viewer to control his movement through the virtual scene as well as cause the rotation of the platform and of the projected image around the circular screen. A small monitor within this housing also shows the ground plan of the virtual environment with reference to the user’s location there.

A microphone on top of this interface camera picks up any sound that the viewer makes, and this causes the release of continuously moving three dimensional words and sentences within the projected scene. Originating in the center of the screen, the physical arrangement of these texts in the virtual environment is determined by the path of the viewer movements while they are being generated. These texts have a temporal five-minute life span; becoming more and more transparent until they disappear they constitute traces of the viewer’s presence there.

Learn more about interactivity, a central concept to some breeders of the art technology.

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