[OT] ArtBots Take Manhattan (press release for lists)

[Philip Galanter]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Douglas Irving Repetto
artbots at artbots.org


June 3, 2003

ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show - ArtBots Take Manhattan

New York City, NY - Now in its second year, ArtBots: The Robot Talent 
Show will take place on July 12th and 13th from noon to 6:00pm at 
Eyebeam Gallery in Manhattan's Chelsea art district. Featuring the 
work of 23 artists and groups from six countries, the show is a 
hybrid combining aspects of both a juried art exhibition and a 
traditional talent show. Participants include robots that draw, 
paint, sculpt, sing, dance, and play musical instruments, as well as 
many with talents that are a bit harder to pin down; you might call 
them robotic sculpture or even cybernetic performance artists!

In keeping with the "Robot Talent Show" theme, attendees will be 
invited to vote for their favorite ArtBot.  Two awards will be 
presented at the end of the show: The Audience Choice Award and The 
Robot's Choice Award (the artists vote for their favorite ArtBots). 
All ArtBots artists and curators will be present throughout the event.

In organizing the show ArtBots curators Douglas Repetto, Philip 
Galanter, and Jenny Lee have drawn from a large and varied pool of 
open call respondents and invitees. The resulting body of work 
reflects the diversity of opinions, techniques, strategies, and goals 
found in the world of robotic art. And while much of the work is 
playful and lighthearted, robotic art gives its human fans plenty to 
think about.

"The application of robotics to the arts raises interesting questions 
about things like authorship, responsibility, intentionality, and 
even consciousness," notes Repetto, "and those questions have 
relevance that extends well beyond the arts. When an artist makes a 
robot that makes a painting, who's the painter? Who's responsible? 
Does it matter? If it's good, who (or what) takes the credit? What 
about when a robot makes a mistake, or breaks down? Who takes the 
fall? The technology being used by many artists today is no different 
from the technology being used to build robotic companions for the 
elderly, automated security systems, or self-guided missiles. As is 
often the case, artists are at the forefront of these technological 
and social developments, asking, if not always answering, important 
questions about the world we're creating."

  Philip Galanter notes, "As with last year's show we've tried to 
create an event that appeals not only to academically inclined 
connoisseurs of high technology art, but also families looking for a 
fun, kid-friendly, afternoon out.  With 23 works the exhibition 
pitches a range of ideas, some of which may be contradictory.  If 
there is an overall trend, however, it is the digital shift of 
emphasis from the virtual to the physical.  A sufficiently complex 
base of technologies for robotics will yield physical systems that 
reach out to us in ways that exhibit the surprise, variety, 
fecundity, and decay of the natural world.  Eschewing technology art 
as a virtual never-world requiring sense numbing LCD-goggles and 
cyber-gloves to fool the body, these artists have chosen to explore 
alternate realities, and alternate creatures, by creating them right 
here in the physical world."

Jenny Lee remarks, "ArtBots is a showcase of human uses of 
electronics, kinetics, sound, plants, and pixels to create art about 
our complex relationship to technology and our changing concepts of 
nature and self. Technology, by definition, is precise, quantifiable 
and to a large extent, predictable. Technology in the hands of 
artists often results in the unpredictable and quirky. The 
intersection and overlap of human and machine are intriguing and 
inspiring. The works in ArtBots are great examples of what is 
possible when people think beyond the boundaries of standard, 
technological applications and traditional approaches to art making.

Information on all ArtBots participants, including images, artist 
statements, biographies, and links, is available now on the ArtBots 
website: http://artbots.org


FACTS AT A GLANCE:

ArtBots: the Robot Talent Show

Cost: this is a FREE event
Date: Saturday and Sunday, July 12th and 13th, 2003
Time: Noon to 6:00 p.m.

Location:
Eyebeam Gallery
540 W 21st Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
New York, NY 10011

Nearest Subway: A/C/E/1/9 to 23rd Street

Additional information, including schedules, directions to the event, 
and information about the participants is available at: 
http://artbots.org


ArtBots Works and Participants:

50 drones: David Bowen (Minneapolis, MN)
Automated Architecture  Robot: Ira Spool, Anna Tsypin (Brooklyn, MA)
BabyBott: Stefan Prosky (New York, NY)
chair de poule: Brad Todd (Quebec, Canada)
Drawing Machine 3.1415926: Fernando Orellana (Columbus, OH)
Drums of War: Rahul Bhargava, Mira  Friedlander (McLean, VA)
Fotron2000(FOE-tron-too-THAU-zin(d)):  Daniel Paluska, Jessica Banks 
jackbackrack (Cambridge, MA)
freqout: David Webber, Keith Waters, Berwick  Research Institute (Roxbury, MA)
Happy Feet: Stephen Turbek (Brooklyn, NY)
LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots (Brooklyn, NY)
Lev: Ranjit Bhatnagar (Brooklyn, NY)
MEART - "The semi living artist": SymbioticA  Research Group in 
collaboration with The Steve Potter Lab (Western Australia/Atlanta, 
GA)
micro.adam & micro.eva: julius  popp (Berlin, Germany)
Monkey On Your Back: Kal  Spelletich/SEEMEN (San Francisco, CA)
Neil: Jason Van Anden (Brooklyn, NY)
Phrase: Leesa and Nicole Abahuni (Farmingdale, NY)
Robots like H2O: Photosythesis Perpetual  Motion Machine: 
Futurefarmers (San Francisco, CA)
Scratchrobot: Stijn Slabbinck (Ghent, Belguim)
Shootings (After Francisco de Goya): Han  Gene Paik (Brooklyn, NY)
Slowscan Soundwave: Douglas Irving  Repetto (New York, NY)
small work for robot and insects: host  productions (Liverpool, UK)
Tribblation: Josh Lifton, Michael  Broxton, Joseph Paradiso (Cambridge, MA)
The Watchers - Televisuality for Xenia:  John S. Lathram lll (Columbus, OH)


ArtBots Staff:

ArtBots Director: Douglas Irving Repetto
ArtBots Curators/Producers: Douglas Irving Repetto, Philip Galanter, Jenny Lee
Eyebeam Producers: Andrea Harner and Jonah Peretti
Executive Producer: The Columbia University Computer Music Center
Website Design: The Mysterious Liz and D.I.R.
ArtBots Theme Song: Christopher Bailey


ArtBots Sponsors:

Producing Organization:	The Columbia University Computer Music Center
(http://music.columbia.edu/cmc)

Hosting Organization: Eyebeam (http://eyebeam.org)

Other Sponsors:	Pratt Institute (http://pratt.edu)
The NYU Arts Technology Group (http://www.nyu.edu/its/atg/)


DO NOT PUBLISH THE FOLLOWING

High quality photos of the participating ArtBots are available upon request.

Please contact via e-mail where possible.

Interview and Photo Contact:
Douglas Irving Repetto (ArtBots Director)
artbots at artbots.org
212-854-9267 (fax)

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