Internationaler Museumstag: robotlab - Interaktive Installation mit einem Industrieroboterv
robotlab
"Profiler" - Interactive installation wit an industrial roboter

In addition to the exhibition „My Own Private Reality. Growing up online in the 90s and 00s, the Edith Russ Site for Media Art presents an interactive installation for the International Museum Day on Sunday, 20 May 2007 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The German artist group robotlab works with industrial robots in public space and explores the relationships between man and machine by means of experimental labs, performances, and installations.
The robot in the installation “Profiler” creates portraits of visitors as profile drawings and arranges them in compositional correlations. If a visitor steps on the stage in front of a luminous background the robot moves in capture position and captures the human figure with its video eye. The computer processes the image, transforms it into a set of lines which are drawn by the robot within a few movements on the large drawing board.
The arrangement of the drawings by the 'profiler' follows its own principle of composition. Due to the robot's anatomy the working space is limited which results in a kidney-shaped drawing area on the board. This area within the robot's reach was segmented into 16 fixed squares, which overlap each other. Step by step 13 profile portraits are distributed accidentally in different squares. Three squares remain empty. Within a square, there are five possible positions for the drawing – the four corners and the centre – one of which is again selected by chance. The combination of system, accident and omission results in unforeseeable formations consisting of single silhouettes, groups and overlaps.

Up until now, people haven't had the chance to meet robots neither in public nor in private spaces. Robots are mostly hidden from public view in industrial production sites; therefore people do not have contact with them, do not experience how they behave and do not know how to behave correctly with them. Today social patterns between man and machines do not exist. Instead there are only fictional images from science fiction literature and films.
This is where robotlab comes in. The artists try to create an experimental forum in which the public has the opportunity to interact with robots. The independent artist group is associated to the Institute for Visual Media at the ZKM Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe.
More Infos and pictures you can find here: