IEEE ICRA 2018 - Robots and Art Forum - Biological Robotic Realities...
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/]

Biological Robotic Realities: Interfacing human heart muscle cells to artistic robotic bodies by Nathan Thompson

The Bio Technology and Tissue Engineering industries are moving into the robotics field. No longer are our automatons just inspired or are mimicking the natural world, biology is now part of the process for actuation.
In many ways, it is inevitable that the trajectory is taking us in this direction but the problematic issues surrounding engineering and production of living machines is something that needs to be discussed.
We live in a “Control” culture where success is measured by the degree we affect the objects around us, our beliefs in the powers of technology to solve our problems err on the cultish. What does it mean to design and control a living machine? What do we do when things go wrong? What are the practical, artistic and ethical implications of doing so? The artist is perfectly situated to not only pull apart this hyped hope but also to shine a light into the dark corners so everyone is kept honest.
Biological Robotics is becoming a reality. It is but a continuum of 4.5 billion years of research really, cybernetics is coming to its “natural” conclusion and our algorithmic amour is starting to show cracks.
Nothing is black and white anymore, binary is passé – the future is biological.

Nathan John Thompson explores the possibilities of man/machine interaction, mechanical sentience and the hidden creative corners that arise from these relationships. His work often questions the role of humans in the natural landscape in order to build greater understanding of our inhabited space. Nathan has shown work and performed throughout Australia, Europe, Asia and Latin America, he is currently researching at SymbioticA – concentrating on IP Stem Cell technologies implementing bio-engineered human heart cells to drive astir soft/biological-robotics.