IEEE ICRA 2018 - Robots and Art Forum - Tender Technologies and Paradoxical Bodies...
Channel: Robotic Art
Date: 2021-07-06

[This is an invited talk presented at the Robots and Art Forum at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Brisbane, Australia on 24 May 2018 -  http://roboticart.org/icra2018/]

Tender Technologies and Paradoxical Bodies: Animal, Human and Machine Hybrids by Ingrid Bachmann

Many age old assumptions and practices are coming into question, long held views about nature, human nature, about the definition of life are being re- examined and in many cased abandoned. The proliferation of new technologies and media, advances in biotechnologies, AI, and genetic engineering are provoking a re-examination of the constitution of the terms “nature”, “human” and “machine”.  Subsequently, the re- examination of these “essential” categories are likewise reshaping notions of self, society and other, and provoking some new and potent configurations of what constitutes life. One boundary to be breached in addition to organism/machine is the distinction between animal/human. Current developments in biotechnologies – xenotransplantation, michrochimerism – suggest that biology does matter and that the machine/human coupling is expanding into the machine/human/animal hybrid. In this talk I would like to explore a more thoughtful awareness of the complicated connections between bodies -human, animal, machine, and material bodies. I will look at some early examples of human- animal hybrids and then discuss an interactive and kinetic sculptural art project entitled Pelt (Bestiary) that explores some of these ideas. In Pelt (Bestiary) I wanted to give digital technology back its pelt – to bring the bestial and the messiness of the world back into the realm of digital technology and to continue my work in grounding the digital experience in the material realm. I am interested in the idea of tender technology, to use technology for ends that are not necessarily productive in the usual sense of the word.

Ingrid Bachmann is a Montreal artist who works in multiple formats including kinetic and interactive sculptures and installations, drawing, sound and video. Technology, both redundant and new, figure in her work as do the stories that are told around them. Bachmann has exhibited her working nationally and internationally including the 11th Biennial of Havana (Cuba), Manifestation D’art International 6, (Quebec), the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (Canada), as well as exhibitions and festivals in Belgium, the U.S., Estonia, Singapore, Peru, Cuba, Australia, Hong Kong, and the UK. Bachmann is currently Associate Professor in the Studio Arts Department at  Concordia University in Montreal, Canada and the Director of the Institute of Everyday Life, art-ideas research lab.