small work for robot and insects - 2002 - 2003

robot attempts to share information with colony of live crickets

'small work for robot and insects' has evolved over a period of three years. v1 was a commission from digitalsummer01: inter[face] to produce a small sound based piece of work, and formed part of a series of investigations into interfaces between natural and technological systems. The work consisted of a group of crickets and a simple quadruped robot existing in a large glass tank, seperated by a glass divider. The sound of the cricket song was transmitted to the robot which made a series of random movements in response.

v2 was commissioned by Arnolfini Live and is a much more sophisticated work. A new hexapod robot was designed and built from scratch and a neural network brain was programmed by Brian Lee Yung Rowe of Muxspace, New York. The robot is now able to listen intelligently to the cricket song and attempt to devise a unique language with which to communicate with them or provoke them into certain behaviours.

The work frames an interest in exploring connections between machine and nature that are outside the typical areas covered by cybernetics or purely scientific study. It illustrates the attempts to allow spontaneous relationships to emerge and provide a platform for us to witness the process. By forming a mechanical entity with qualities which are vaguely lifelike but which have the capacity to behave in a completely non-lifelike manner we allow the formation of spontaneous relationships that inhabit a ‘third state’. All parts of the system need to adapt to each other for meaningful communication and exchange to take place, rather than informed response. Once, and if, this third state is achieved the entities can begin a mutual exchange of information which will continually evolve and develop nuance.

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