From July 2003 - June 2006, ANAT was an Industry Partner alongside the Australia Council for the Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art, Artspace and Partick Systems and Technology on a Synapse Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant. The project placed new media artist Mari Velonaki in residence at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR), University of Sydney for three years.
This project demonstrated that people can be interested in and engage with interactive/robotic objects that are utilitarian in appearance and are neither anthropomorphic nor ‘cute.’
Fish-Bird Circle B-Movement C was an interactive installation exploring the dialogical possibilities between two autokinetic objects (two robotic wheelchairs) and their audience. Assisted by integrated writing arms, the chairs write intimate letters on the floor, impersonating two characters, Fish and Bird, who fall in love but cannot be together due to ‘technical’ difficulties. In their shared isolation, Fish and Bird communicate intimately with one another and their visitors via movement and text.
Fish-Bird has been an extremely successful and innovative project, with Mari’s contribution to the Australian Centre for Field Robotics assisting with key areas of research and development. In turn, the scientific skills creatively applied to the development of the robotic wheelchairs, has resulted in new possibilities for the use of robotics in health science.
The project demonstrated that people can be interested in and engage with interactive/robotic objects that are utilitarian in appearance and are neither anthropomorphic nor ‘cute.’ The participants were drawn to the ‘Fish’ and ‘Bird’ robots not because of their appearance, but because of how they behaved. The robots conveyed ‘awareness’ of participants and interacted with them via movement and the use of poetic text. As well as Fish-Bird the team also created a new photo-dynamic screen technology that was demonstrated through an additional installation, Embracement.
In addition, the team initiated the first major international conference discussing cross-disciplinary research in art and science, and the social implications of such research. The conference, New Constellations: Art, Science and Society, was held in March 2006 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
Team credits:
Mari Velonaki original concept/art direction
David Rye mechatronic system design
Steve Scheding software architecture
Stefan Williams tracking system & software design
