On Tuesday 16 February I visited The Imitation Game exhibition on currently at Manchester Art Gallery, the exhibition focuses on the relationship between human and machine and features some interesting work where these opposing concepts intersect and interact. The pieces I found particularly inspiring were Tove Kjellmark’s work where two robots discuss the nature of human consciousness, David Link’s LoveLetters 1.0, Mari Velonaki’s Fish-Bird and Ed Atkins’ Performance Capture.
David Link:
Link’s work re-imagines Christopher Strachey’s software Ferranti Mark I from 1954, which used an algorithm to randomly generate texts intended to express and arouse emotions. Link has re-programmed this the project on show here using 12 vintage cathode ray tubes showing a live output of the algorithm on an old monitor. Alongside this there were example of love letters created by the machine, they are poetically surreal and seem to surprisingly make sense (despite being a tad lyrical). I particularly like the notion of an algorithm to re-create human emotion and the live performance of seeing the machine work through this to output a randomly generated letter that you begin to connect with. It somewhat feels like a form of intervention into emotion, the machine being the intervening agent in the process and coming inbetween human and human. The development of an algorithm in relation to my current project could form a way to go from sound > object. The object being created as part of the process, as a form of an output.
Mari Velonaki:
Fish-Bird was a seemingly simple concept of two characters who fall in love but can’t be together but continually try and communicate to each other and the audience. It created quite a magical effect, making the robots seem very endearing and responsive to the environment around them. The robots took the form of two wheelchairs, one given the character of Fish and the other of Bird. They were equipped with various sensors that monitored the body language of the visitors to the space and changed their behaviour according, this worked for the visitor to explore intimate relationships in digital and robotic characters. The wheelchairs were also fitted with thermal printers that every so often printed out a message as a communication device not only between the two robots, but also between the robots and the human visitors. These were programmed so that each wheelchair had its own handwriting, again giving this notion of individuality and an independent personality to transform your perception of them as robots to them as characters we can emphasise with.
Tove Kjellmark:
This was quite an unexpected piece, it was housed in its own separate room and upon entering the space you felt like you were intruding on two people having a conversation in a living room. The robots themselves were interesting in that most of their mechanics were exposed and only isolated elements such as the rib cage, hands, feet and the face were given a human-like facade. These human elements were created using 3D printing in white, this reminded me of the use of 3D printing as a translation device from human to object for my first project. Here it does similar, except this time acting as the translation tool from object to human. Aesthetically you felt as though you were watching two robots communicate, which once you had made this realisation took on an even more unsettling feel. Situated between the two robots was a kinect that was monitoring people in the room where motion and noise triggered the robots to react, at times telling the visitor to ‘shut up’ or ‘do you mind, we’re having a private conversation’. This extra element was the most fascinating for me, without this the robots could have seems quite passive and purely delivering a pre-programme monologue. But the inclusion of a live interactive element made the robots active in the space, you instantly felt like you had to be quiet so as not to disturb their conversation. This again had an unsettling feeling, visually you knew they were purely mechanical and programmed by electronics but the feeling instilled was one of real and reactive intelligence. This live reaction element is something that can be considered as part of my project, it appears to work to make something active in a space as a participatory object.
