QUT Creative Lab presents Bodies of Tech, a series of artworks that explore the human experience in technological systems. Presented over two nights (Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th August), installation and performances will be followed by panel sessions with leaders in the field discussing technology and data.

Guests can view the installations at the Turbine Studios from 6pm before moving to the Visy Studio at 7.30 for the panel session.

Performing Robots - Panel (Wednesday at 7.30pm)

The QUT Creative Lab will present a panel discussion on Performing Robots. The Panel will be chaired by Prof Louis-Philippe Demers and include panellists; Professor Jonathan Roberts, Dr Steph Hutchison, Dr John McCormick and Dr Adam Nash. The panel will discuss robots increasing presence in our daily life and on stage. They will explore how their practices investigate the possibilities of new technological performers and the possibilities and implications for living with them. How do we collaborate? And, what might this collaboration between performing arts and robotics contribute to human-robot interaction and social robotics?

The panel will be preceded by performance installations which will run from 6-7.30pm:

Eve of Dust (Steph Hutchinson, John McCormick, Adam Nash) is a collaborative performance and installation between a human and a robot. The artwork draws on both the possibilities and anxieties arising from the collaboration between humans and emerging intelligent systems personified in the robot. The artwork uses a Sawyer collaborative robot, an articulated 7-jointed robot arm that somewhat resembles a snake. The robot is able to be used in close proximity to humans, unlike most industrial robots, and will stop before causing physical harm. This enables human partners to physically interact with the robot to co-create a performance of dance and music.

Cosmic Background (Chris Handran) engages with the material hermeneutics of contemporary scientific practice, which operates beyond the parameters of human perception. The title of the work playfully references the contemporary scientific project of mapping ‘cosmic background radiation,’ a phenomenon that was first identified through attempts to eliminate static from radio broadcasts.

Eve of Dust and Cosmic Background will perform both nights from 6-7.30. Performing Robots and Art and Big Data panels will commence at 7.30pm

Please see the Bodies of Tech - Art and Big Data for more information on the Thursday night program.