Disarming II (2023)

Emanuel Gollob

disarming is a performative exploration of the relation between detached robot arms, artificial environments, and human observers, as well as a search for potential future roles of robotics & AI in our society. A learning and unlearning of locomotions in postanthropocentric environments and times. The work playfully explores the ambiguity of disarming as a process of physical detachment and emotional attachment.

Locomotion can be seen as a primal (post-birth) instinct and ultimate act of independence. A robotic limb, somehow detached from a human-constructed technological body, tries to find concepts for advancing movements even though it initially wasn’t made for locomotion – vulnerable yet determined. Parallel to a familiar dystopian plot of technological autonomy and the feelings going with it, witnessing these first clumsy tries may awaken compassion or even a certain emotional bond.

disarming paints a picture of a multi-layered narrative of technology as a convoluted species and potential valuable mediator in a multi-species world. An ecological system of intertwined digital and physical realms with parallel learning/unlearning on different levels. A relational world with and between independence and still connectedness.

disarming is planned as three possible variations:

  1. Intra-active Performance (of an AI-driven robotic arm & a human performer)
  2. Intra-active Installation (continuously learning)
  3. Intra-active Video Installation
Genre
interactiveVideoInstallation
interactiveInstallationSculpture
robotics
mediaAVBasedPerformance
Methods
aIMachineLearning
Themes
Art And Science
machine
artificialIntelligence
Arts And Visual Culture
perspective
Body And Human
cyborg
embodiment
gesture
body
performativity
movement
Nature And Environment
anthropocentrism
Power And Politics
sovereignty
Religion And Mythology
creation