esc medien kunst labor

Empathy Swarm, Curious Tautophone and Dr. Doppler’s Machine

Interviewer: “HAL, despite your enormous intellect, are you ever frustrated by your dependence on people to carry out your actions?”

HAL 9000: “Not in the slightest bit. I enjoy working with people.” 1


Digital technologies are increasingly permeating all aspects of our lives. Self-learning programs based on algorithms not only influence our behavior but are also increasingly granted authority to make decisions that have far-reaching consequences, not only for our individual lives but for society as a whole. How objective are these programs really? What laws do they follow, and who profits from them? In order to create rules for how to implement new technologies, we need a kind of knowledge that goes beyond how these technologies are used. This project postulates a new approach: a continuously developing system of autonomous robots that act as an interface between humans and machines forms an ecosystem for the coexistence of both species in a democratic society characterized by empathy and respect.


1
2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick (1968); HAL is an acronym for “heuristically programmed algorithmic computer” and also the fictional computer of the spaceship Discovery.

21.9.–15.11.19

Exhibition

esc medien kunst labor
Palais Trauttmansdorff, Bürgergasse 5
8010 Graz
♿ Venue accessible for wheelchairs

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Free admission

22.9.–13.10.
Tue–Fri 14:00–19:00, Sat–Sun 14:00–18:00 and by appointment

ORF Long Night of Museums:
5.10, 18:00–01:00

15.10.–15.11.
Tue–Fri 14:00–19:00 and by appointment

Opening: 21.9., 16:00

Concert performance: 4.10., 18:00
Psychophysics Machines

Robotics workshop: 5.10., 16:00
Registration: musikprotokoll.orf.at

Robotics performance: 5.10., 20:00

Celebrate Ada Lovelace Day:
8.10., 14:00–19:00

Closing event: 15.11., 18:00

Artists: Adam Donovan and Katrin Hochschuh 
Curated by esc medien kunst labor

A coproduction of esc medien kunst labor, kunst@werk, and ORF musikprotokoll 2019
Supported by steirischer herbst ’19