communication and otherness in robotic art
DESCRIPTION
The video of this presentation has been inserted after the title slide. The rest of the slides follow on after this (just move forward to skip the video). The artistic practice approach to designing robots is not generally focused on creating machines that are completely predictable and reliable. From some perspectives, in particular those that assume familiarity is key in supporting communication success, it might therefore be deemed as unlikely to result in the development of robots that support rich social interactions. This presentation breaks down this assumption to argue that robotic art installations, where interactions between humans and robots occur even when the robot is overtly strange and other-than-human, provide excellent illustrations of communicative encounters, which may develop into longer interactions. In particular, this presentation highlights the importance of considering nonverbal communication, the dynamics of communication systems and the importance of interruptions, in recognising the communicative potential of non-humanoid robots. Rather than attending only to what is easily understood, precisely presented and flowing, the importance of misunderstanding, ambiguity and disruption is emphasised. An analysis of encounters between visitors and robots created by artists therefore supports a reconsideration of the position of otherness in communication to invoke new understandings of what it might mean to be social even outside installation spaces.TRANSCRIPT
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art27.10.2014 Eleanor Sandry
International Conference on Social Robotics:Workshop on Robots and Art – Misbehaving Machines
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art
Overview
Social robots, communication and sameness
Critiquing the pursuit of sameness
Key ideas from artistic practice: Encounter Dance Interruption
Broader possibilities
27.10.2014
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art
Social robots, communication and sameness
27.10.2014
Cybernetic traditionThe accurate transmission or exchange of information (Claude Shannon & Warren Weaver)
Semiotic traditionClarity of expression, use of words etc.(Charles Sanders Peirce)
=> within cybernetic processes of human communication semiotic excellence can be understood to reduce noise
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art
Social robots, communication and sameness
27.10.2014
Kismet and a human in an infant-caregiver relation
Socio-cultural traditionThe production (and reproduction) of shared social understandings of the world (James Carey)
Socio-psychological traditionWho - Says What - To Whom - With What Effect (Harold Lasswell)
Communication as influence
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art
Critiquing the pursuit of sameness
Framing communication in terms of familiarity, commonality and sameness results in:
The “reduplication of the self” (John Durham Peters)
The “elimination of difference” (Amit Pinchevski)
These results being illustrated by the creation of humanoid robots.
27.10.2014
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art 27.10.2014
The Autonomous Light Air Vessels (ALAVs) Jed Berk and Nikhil Mitter
Key ideas from artistic practice:
Encounter Dance Interruption
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art
Key ideas from artistic practice:
Encounters with ALAVs
“the face to face” (Emmanuel Levinas)
“the way in which the other presents” or reveals themselves
“the whole body—a hand or curve of the shoulder—can express as the face”
“Communication is an adventure of a subjectivity … it will involve uncertainty”
27.10.2014
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art 27.10.2014
The Fish-Bird Project Mari Velonaki (CSR Sydney)
Key ideas from artistic practice:
Encounter Dance Interruption
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art
Key ideas from artistic practice:
Dances with Fish and Bird
27.10.2014
Movement as communication
Printer notes dropped on the floor
“small behaviors”“the glances, gestures, positionings, and verbal statements that people continually feed into the situation, whether intended or not”(Erving Goffman)
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art 27.10.2014
AUR Guy Hoffman (MIT)
Key ideas from artistic practice:
Encounter Dance Interruption
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art
Key ideas from artistic practice:
Interrupted by AUR
Fluent communication
Working together promotes a strong sense of team reliance
Humans begin to trust AUR,so that they can be interrupted and defer to its understanding of the task
27.10.2014
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art
Broader possibilities:
EOD teams and their robots
Machine-like robots with little autonomy
People still anthropomorphise and/or zoomorphise these robots
Movements as “small behaviors”
Sociocultural positioning as life-savers
With unique skills and abilities that are likely to be increasingly autonomous
=> Trust and potential for interruption likely to become increasingly important
27.10.2014
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Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art
Broader possibilities:
Respecting “otherness-in-communication”
Robots from artistic practice (including AUR) emphasise ideas of:
Encounters between humans and robots A fluent dance of communication The value of interruption
Communication as more than language Nonverbal as well as verbal “small behaviors”
“‘Communication’ across irreducible difference is what matters… Respect is the name of the game.” (Donna Haraway)
27.10.2014
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Communication and Otherness in Robotic Art
Thank you and contact details
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.zigzaggery.edublogs.org
Academia.edu: curtin.academia.edu/EleanorSandry
Twitter: @elsand
27.10.2014