This semester we have been taught by so many interesting artists and makers. Mar was another example of someone who has had a long career making thoughtful and interesting works that explore our relationship with technology in a way that provokes lots of questions.
He talked about the above work and how long it took to make and also about how it highlights the limitations of AI and hardware. The device finds it very difficult to find a needle in a haystack and has a much more limited range of affordances for it to complete the task.
He spoke about how people tended to anthropomorphize the hardware and how it might speak to the way we project ourselves onto the tech that is part of our lives. If I was to think a bit more critically about the methodology of the work – I wonder if the affordances of this particular robot obscures a reality about the way that technology works. I remember the artist saying that this is a state of the art robot that is usually used in a production line and would usually have a particular task that it needed to perform repeatedly. I suspect that if an engineer was designing a robot specifically to find a needle in a haystack – a different kind of robot would have been developed. For example, attaching a magnet on the bottom of a mobile robot would have been a better solution for this problem.
I think, therefore, that this robot gives a false idea of what it means for technology to engage with difficult repetitive tasks. A robot could definitely perform this task better than a human, but not using visual sensors and being stuck in the same position sifting through hay with a grabbing hand.
These two works used 3D printing and tried to extend the capabilities of what 3D printing can do. I really enjoyed seeing the process photos and hearing about the challenges of trying to construct organic looking forms out of a medium that has some very strict limitations.
This work was a fun (and scary) critique of the way that AI is being used in employment as a form of surveillance. It is interactive and I really like the way that the visuals communicate the grotesque way that customer service can look at it’s extremes. And how this kind of politeness can hide forms of aggression or violence.
