[dorkbotmtl-infusion] Artist Talk, Jan. 31 at Con U: Garnet Hertz

[flemming]

Hello Dorkbots,

I hope this is an appropriate use of the discussion list, please flame 
me otherwise. Though not an official Dorkbot evernt, I think anyone 
interested in Dorkbot will be interested in an artist who made a 
cockroach controlled robot.

thanks,

Peter


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Garnet Hertz: "Minds / Brains : Animal / Machines"

DATE: Wednesday January 31st
TIME: 7:00pm
LOCATION: 1515 Ste. Catherine (coin Guy), Concordia EV Building, Metro 
Guy-Concordia
ROOM: Room 615 on the 5th floor, Visual Arts side (in the CDA area)

This artist talk, by Garnet Hertz, frames his current research within 
the context of animal/machine hybrids in science, contemporary 
electronic art practice, robotics and computer science. This 
presentation will also explain "Cockroach Controlled Mobile Robot": an 
experimental mechanism developed by Hertz that uses a living Madagascan 
hissing cockroach atop a modified trackball to control a three-wheeled 
robot.

poster is here:
http://hybrid.concordia.ca/~pflemmin/hertztalk.jpg

artist's web site is here:
www.conceptlab.com

thanks to: IMCA, CIAM, CDA, University of California, Hexagram

(please forward, apologies for cross-posting)

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Biography:
Garnet Hertz is a Fulbright Scholar, Research Fellow at the California 
Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, and is a 
doctoral student at the University of California Irvine. He also holds 
an MFA from the Arts Computation Engineering program at UCI and has 
completed UCI's Critical Theory Emphasis. He won honorable mention at 
this year's Vida 9.0 Art & Artificial Life competition. Current 
interests include the history, theory and practice of electro/mechanical 
art, computing, media theory, digital/internet art and robotics. He has 
shown his work at several notable international venues including Ars 
Electronica and SIGGRAPH and is also founder of Dorkbot-Socal, a monthly 
Los Angeles-based lecture series on electronic art. Popular press about 
his work is widespread, disseminating through 25 countries including The 
New York Times, Wired News, I.D. Magazine, The Washington Post, 
Slashdot, NPR, USA Today, NBC, CBS, TV Tokyo, ZDTV and CNN Headline News.

Detailed Description Of Talk:
"Minds / Brains : Animal / Machines"
This artist talk, by Garnet Hertz, frames his current research within 
the context of animal/machine hybrids in contemporary electronic art 
practice, robotics and computer science. Animals inspire the development 
of technological systems by providing clever solutions to embodied, 
complex environments. Artists, such as Survival Research Labs, Ken 
Rinaldo and others have developed animal/machine hybrids as a method of 
novel robotic control, while robotics researchers have done the inverse: 
implemented technology to robotically control living animals. This 
presentation will present examples of this research, and relates these 
themes to the origin of cybernetics: Norbert Weiner's 1948 text, titled 
"Cybernetics: on Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine".

This presentation will also explain "Cockroach Controlled Mobile Robot": 
an experimental mechanism developed by Hertz that uses a living 
Madagascan hissing cockroach atop a modified trackball to control a 
three-wheeled robot. In this system, the insect is in control: if the 
cockroach moves left, the robot moves left; if the insect moves right, 
the robot moves right. Infrared sensors on the robot also provide 
navigation feedback to the cockroach, striving to create a 
pseudo-intelligent system with the cockroach as the CPU. This project is 
motivated by three key concepts: 1. Biomimetics, 2. The Cyborg, and 3. 
The Computational/Biological.

These three motivations are embodied in the mobile robot system, a 
platform that makes the intentions of the insect legible to a wide and 
diverse audience. Although technically and conceptually, complex, the 
system is easily understood by young and old with little or no 
explanation. Individuals tend to watch the robot for extended periods of 
time, empathizing with the insect, and trying to discern whether or not 
the organism is controlling or being controlled by the technology... and 
whether it is aware of, immersed in, or pleased by its synthetic and 
mediated environment.