How to build a dishwasher – art by robots for robots – is an exhibition supported by the Department of Computer Science held at the Kerava Art Museum. The exhibition studies the mechanics of creating and receiving art. Can an art experience be dismantled and rethought with the logic of the designer of a dishwasher? Could a robot create art that another robot could experience and assess?

From the viewpoint of robotics, washing dishes is a very complex and inefficient activity. First you have to take a plate, then wash it with a brush dipped in soap, rinse it, and set it to dry. Instead of repeating this human set of movements, the dishwasher designer has to rethink the whole process. Which would be the simplest and most efficient way to reach the same end result? What is most essential when washing dishes?

 

Could a robot create art that another robot could experience and assess? And what would this art be like? A group of robotics experts at the Carnegie Mellon university in the US is looking for the answers to these questions. One of the members of this group and the initiator for this project is the Argentina-born artist Axel Straschnoy, who lives in Helsinki.

 

As an end result, two independent, intelligent robots that react to each other were born out of this project: one of them performs while the other one watches the performance with surprise, interest, or indifference. The 'body language' of the robots is explicitly designed for this purpose, but the team did not want to anthropomorphise the thinking machines by making them look like humans. The main focus is on wonderment at the difference between man and robot.

 

But can humans understand artistic interaction between robots? Can art exist in the first place without humans and their human experience? For the time being, the robots look like they are excited about very simple accomplishments, just as humans may have been at one time. But could they learn to create multi-dimensional art that could interest humans as well as other robots?

 

The exhibition How to Build a Dishwasher can be seen as a trans-modern relative of historical avant-garde, as an attempt to understand how technology impacts our thinking and contemporary experience, but also as an attempt to understand the future and the possibilities it brings. The team's conversations and the process of building the robots have been taped and edited into a multi-channel installation that follows the robots into the exhibition.

 

The exhibition will be held on 26 March – 30 May 2010 at the Kerava Art Museum (contact details below). You can print out an invitation to the opening of the exhibition and an opening seminar on Fri 26 March by clicking on the picture of an invitation below.

 

 

 

Axel Straschnoy from Argentina has studied at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. He combines many different media in his art, from x-rays through performance projects to installations, with a thematic core in the network of relationships that knits together the creation, mediation, and presentation of art. In spite of his conceptuality, his work is rather based on creation alone or in groups, creating test platforms, and wondering at things than pure analytical thinking.

 

More details: http://axel.straschnoy.com ja http://axel.straschnoy.com/robots

 

Robotics performances directed by Axel Straschnoy: 26 March, 8 April, 27 April, 11 May, 19 May and 29 May.

 

The exhibition and the seminar at 15-18 o'clock on 26 March are a part of Pixelache, the largest festival of electronic art in Scandinavia. On the same day, Camp Pixelache at 10-18 will bring national and international media artists to the Kerava Art Museum to present their projects and discuss their themes. It is intended to create a relaxed meeting point for representatives of art, science and the business world.

 

The project has been supported by: AVEK, the Kone Foundation, the Arts Council of Finland, the Uusimaa Arts Council, the Alfred Kordelin foundation, the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki, Studio for Creative Inquiry (CMU), The Collaborative Machining Center (CMU) and the Robotics Institute (CMU).

 

Produced by Piritta Puhto / Kompistuotanto.

 

Kerava Art Museum

Klondyketalo, Kumitehtaankatu 5 F, 04260 Kerava

phone: + 358 (0)9 294 8090

www.keravantaidemuseo.fi

Open Tue-Fri 12-18, Sat-Sun 11-17

You can take the K or N train to Savio!