2016
coated styrofoam, robotic carving
photo: Seth Bechtold
video
This project was made possible thanks to Lighton International Artist Exchange Program (LIAEP) financing the residency at the Center for New Art at the William Paterson University from January 16
until February 20 2016
.
Authorial software (Jakub Valtar) translates brain activity recorded as EEG waves through NeuroSky biosensor into the spline in virtual 3d space. This spline became guides for generating 3d forms. Little adjustment in the process led to distinctively different outcomes.
Digital models were carved by robotic arm in the Center for New Art at the William Paterson University, NJ.
While recording EEG activity I was repeating the rhyme from my childhood we used to say while pulling the acacia leafs off the stem:
Authorial software (Jakub Valtar) translates brain activity recorded as EEG waves through NeuroSky biosensor into the spline in virtual 3d space. This spline became guides for generating 3d forms. Little adjustment in the process led to distinctively different outcomes.
Digital models were carved by robotic arm in the Center for New Art at the William Paterson University, NJ.
While recording EEG activity I was repeating the rhyme from my childhood we used to say while pulling the acacia leafs off the stem:
‘‘Happiness / Misery / Love / Marriage / Money / Child / Death.’’ The last leaf left on the stem
was our "destiny". I find these few words as a very bold definition of a human life. I was saying
these words over and over .
The idea is to materialize something so ephemeral yet essential such as mental activity. Thinking - the ability to abstract is the characteristic of humans. The relationship of a physical substance depicting the mental process and a mental activity itself is very problematic since there is nothing man-made that was not thought about before. For me there is one substantial question: Can the object of a study be an instrument for its self-examination at the same time as well? How does the approach to understand something influence the result?
The idea is to materialize something so ephemeral yet essential such as mental activity. Thinking - the ability to abstract is the characteristic of humans. The relationship of a physical substance depicting the mental process and a mental activity itself is very problematic since there is nothing man-made that was not thought about before. For me there is one substantial question: Can the object of a study be an instrument for its self-examination at the same time as well? How does the approach to understand something influence the result?
Interface of the authorial software
The complexity of the form can be viewed from different angels
Variations
Children rhyme -words said during pulling off the leaves. These words were used during the EEG recording.
Part of the code - the words of the rhyme are included in short description as commentaries. Thus machine and human language
become one.
KUKA robot in the Center for New Art, Paterson University, NJ, USA
other robotic carvings of this project