Where we are now and where we are headed 2008-09...
The 2008 Digitalis Robot was produced by architecture Prof. Jason Johnson and music Prof. Matthew Burtner with assistance from Joy Wang, Megan Manion and Troy Rogers -- plus the Interactive Media Research Group [IMRG] and ITC at UVa. [more info, images and video coming soon.] On April 4th, 2008 our robot responded to real-time information from over 300 wireless laptops at the UVa amphitheater ... a world record perhaps?? check back soon to find out ....
Text from an article published in the Daily Progress: May 5, 2008 (By Jeremy Borden)Inch a little closer and the robot will come toward you, too. Then it might even have something to say.
University of Virginia students on Sunday displayed moving, blinking, music-making robots, a culmination of a course that produced non-humanoid automata that filled gallery space at the School of Architecture. Some there suggested that the interdisciplinary approach in the “Robotic Ecologies 2008” class provides a window into the future.
Architecture, music, engineering and computer science students collaborated in small groups to create what they called “sonic spatial” instruments. For example, one of the instruments, called “Medusa,” would create drum-like sounds after its long tentacles were flicked. One tentacle would activate another tentacle nearby, and flashing lights corresponded as drum-like beats reverberated throughout. Other robots relied on motion and infrared sensors, and would respond with notes to touch or even proximity.
Jason Johnson, the UVa architecture professor who headed the class of 15 that produced the three robots in just a semester of work, said he wanted to combine students from seemingly disparate fields of study “and see what [happened].”
“The critical part was to get these guys to talk,” Johnson said. What emerged, he said, provides a window into a future that combines disciplines and makes the virtual a reality.
One such “cultural artifact” is Apple’s iPhone, he said. The phone, Johnson said, combines audio, visual and sensory items in a “beautiful object.” Two engineers sitting down to solve a problem wouldn’t have come up with it, Johnson said.
Students said the robots are more than just physical things that respond to simple computer programs. Yuri Spitsyn, a doctoral candidate in music, said the robots provide a new look at the idea of our surroundings. Though the students’ robots are just small prototypes, similar designs could be produced on a much larger scale to create a more immersive experience.
“For me, it’s more like an environment,” Spitsyn said.
Cammy Brothers, a UVa professor who teaches renaissance architecture, was impressed with how the disciplines gelled.
“It’s stretching each of the disciplines,” Brothers said. “They occupy this new category of object that’s between architecture and instrument. The point is that architecture now is barely engaging movement or robotics. The idea of sensitivity … responsiveness and robotics has a lot of potential.”
[Correction Note from Jason: Unfortunately this article does not mention that the seminar was co-taught with Prof. Matthew Burtner and we were assisted greatly by our T.A. Troy Rogers from the VCCM.]
The Digitalis Festival is tonight (4/30) from 8-10pm at the UVa Amphitheater. Come see our interactive robotic maestro channel an orchestra of over 500 wireless laptops. Shape changing LED auroras will spotlight participants as they produce an emergent sonic spatial environment. Our phototropic beacon features the world's first photovoltaic mohawk that searches out sunlight during the day and then playfully transmits pulses of light and sound at night.
We are now working day and night to complete our latest three robotic prototypes for the deadline next week. The students have been pushing hard to refine and integrate their ideas into fully functioning interactive sonic-spatial assemblies. The date and time of our opening show will be announced soon. My "Deux Ex Machina" (in collaboration with Matthew Burtner and the IMRG - Interactive Media Research Group) will be released at this year's "Digitalis Festival" on April 30th. The robot will be directing (or be directed by?) a symphonic scale (200+) laptop LAN MICE orchestra . There will be a live webcast provided by UVa's ITC. Check back for details. On May 20th I will also be presenting the project at the New Horizons Conference. The keynote speaker will be Ben Fry (co-author of the amazing Processing programming environment.)
The Robotic Ecologies Emergent Effects Workshop 2008 is running during the next two weeks from Jan 30 to Feb 13, 2008. The group will be meeting Wednesday nights from 7:00 - 10:00pm Campbell Hall Exhibition Room C. We will be hosting a series of electronics sessions including an intro to solar driven robotics led by Troy Rogers on Feb 6. Final prototypes will be presented on Feb 13.
From the workshop handout: Emergent behaviors are rendered visible when a small number of self-organizing agents interact in simple ways to produce complex patterns or effects. A familiar example is the collective swarming behavior of starlings: individual birds, with no top-down directive, follow simple rules to form extraordinary shape changing patterns in the sky. Many other dynamic processes in the material world, from bees to flowing metals to entire cities, can be explained using emergence theory.
The aim of the workshop is to invent and build small-scale machines that are capable of generating and registering these emergent effects. During this process we will be developing and situating small performative machines capable of generating, interacting and registering their own emergent patterns over time. Unlike typically linear processes of cause and effect, you will propagate wild forms of expression – dynamic marks, traces, notations and the like – that will emerge from the interplay of these synthetic modes, materials, and mediums with their environment.
An exotic host of base materials, electronics and mechanisms will be provided. If necessary, during the week you should also pillage the likes of the second-hand shops, toy stores, hardware stores, the recycling bins, the garbage, etc. There is no need to expend lavish amounts of capital – be inventive!
Pictured Above: A photograph of an sound-material experiment by Hans Jenny - Spores of moss (lycopodium) form emergent clusters that rotate around their own axis, while the larger collection of clusters rotates around the central axis of the plate.
