This week I took up a good deal of interest in a specific artist mentioned in the book for our class; "Digital Art" by Christiane Paul. The artist goes by the name of Kenneth Rinaldo and his piece that sparked my attention is titled “Autopoiesis”.
Autopoiesis is a unique installation that forms an interactive environment consisting of multiple infrared sensors equipped to robotic tentacle-like arms operated by a central computer. This combination allows for the arms to react individually, or in a grouped manner towards living beings that approach it. In addition the arms will make sounds according to emotion, higher beeps for excitement and lower beeps for a state of relaxation. So in a sense this digital environment has the power of “sight”, thought, touch, and communication. In this manner you could say that Autopoiesis surpasses some mentally disabled humans in the quality of what it is to be human. A sense of free will seems like the only element separating this creation from a life of its own.
Thinking back to older cartoons set in the future, such as the Jetsons, although we aren’t riding around in space shuttles to get from place to place or coexisting with robot servants who do chores for us, creations like Autopoiesis are a step closer to proving the past predictions of the future to be nearly legit.
If anyone else is interested in learning more about Kenneth Rinaldo or viewing Autopoiesis or his other artworks, they can be found at his home site “Emergent Systems“ (http://accad.osu.edu/~rinaldo/ )
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I agree. There are so many things now that people thought up of before, whether it be cartoons, tv series, movies, etc... that are now a reality today. I was looking through the site and I really liked the augmented fish reality. I would think that a fish making the bowl move in different directions was all just by chance of where the fish decided to swim. But when they added color into it and realized that the fish move and respond to different colors I thought it was interesting. Maybe it has something to do with the sun...
ReplyDeleteYou really need to look into the program at Carnegie-Mellon University set up by Randy Paush. I forget the name off the top of my head, but you can easily find it on their website and in his book, The Last Lecture. It is a class he created that threw engineering students, computer programming students, and art students together. Their goal: create an interactive 3D virtual reality world. It is still a graduate level class that can be taken by any major on the campus. It has become a school wide sensation. Everyone on campus lines up on presentation day just to see what they've created.
ReplyDeleteIf you would like to see an example of one of these worlds, go to Youtube and look up "The Last Lecture" by Randy Paush. Watch the second half. It is towards the end.
I do suggest, however, on a very different note, that if you take the time to watch the virtual reality segment of "The Last Lecture", you should watch it all. That lecture and book changed my life for the better.
Also Randy Paush = real life Seto Kaiba. Just sayin'.