FoAM - lirec

ArtBots 2011

nik — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:12:46 +0000

Start: 2011-10-07 00:00 GMT+2

End: 2011-10-09 00:00 GMT+2

ArtBots is pleased to announce that the sixth international ArtBots exhibition for robotic art and art-making robots will take place at the Ugent UFO-building in Gent, Belgium on October 7-9, 2011. Creators of talented robots are invited to submit their work for possible inclusion in the show.
We have no fixed idea of what qualifies as robotic art; if you think it's a robot and you think it's art, we encourage you to submit your work. Regardless of whether it's hi-tech, low-tech, or neg-tech, we're interested in the ideas you're working with, not just the gear. Proposals for workshops, performances, and other kinds of participation are also welcome.

Each ArtBots is a bit different; the location changes and we invite new humans to co-curate the show with us. We hope that by changing the specifics of the show each year we can keep it accessible to a diverse range of people, works, and ideas.

This year's co-curators are: Douglas Repetto (ArtBots), Kurt Van Houtte (timelab), and Nik Gaffney (foAM)

ArtBots 2011 is a joint production of: timelab (Gent), FoAm (Brussels), University of Gent, ArtBots, and The Columbia University Computer Music Center

http://artbots.org/2011/

FoAM talk at Pixelache

dave — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:19:30 +0000

Start: 2011-02-22 18:00 GMT+2

End: 2011-02-22 20:00 GMT+2

Dave Griffiths presents FoAM

Dave will talk about FoAM, who are bringing their Groworld Bazaar to Pixelache in March. He will give more context and background to this project as well as revealing other related and not so related work that FoAM has been developing in recent years. As well as explaining FoAM’s work in connecting plants and people, the talk will include cooking recipes, livecoding, robot cats playing chess, and demos of prototype computer games.

http://www.pixelache.ac/helsinki/pixelversity/programme-2011/dave-griffi...

Designing Robotic Artefacts

maja — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 13:47:31 +0000

Start: 2010-10-16 09:00 GMT-1

http://www.yourhost.is/en/nordichi-2010/w02-designing-robotic-artefacts....

Nik Gaffney talks about FoAM's views on animism & materialism in robotic design, in a workshop hosted by LIREC partner SICS.

The workshop aims to shed an empirically grounded light on some of the myths about designing user centred robotic systems. For example, a robotic system modelled after a human is not necessarily a human-centred design, and an autonomous robot is not necessarily the best system from a user-centred perspective. Killing myths will also include ethical concerns, such as ethics based on user centred design versus the Asimov ethic rules developed in fiction. (...)

http://www.yourhost.is/en/nordichi-2010/w02-designing-robotic-artefacts....

Vlaamse Overheid

maja — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:24:36 +0000

LIREC

nik — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:48:42 +0000

LIREC aims to establish a multi-faceted theory of artificial long-term companions (including memory, emotions, cognition, communication, learning, etc.), embody this theory in robust and innovative technology and experimentally verify both the theory and technology in real social environments.

Whether as robots, social toys or graphical and mobile synthetic characters, interactive and sociable technology is advancing rapidly. However, the social, psychological and cognitive foundations and consequences of such technological artefacts entering our daily lives - at work, or in the home - are less well understood. The technology is commonly based on evaluation of short-term interactions or even first encounters, and limited to one specific embodiment. Research shows that the novelty effect, which may attract interest in the first encounter, quickly runs out and that people’s preferences and attitudes towards the system change.

Successful technology can only be delivered on the basis of strong scientific foundations, and with partners in psychology, ethology, human-computer interaction, human-robot interaction, robotics and graphical characters, LIREC will advance understanding of the concepts of embodiment, autobiographic memory and social interactions in the context of companions where the ‘mind’ might migrate to differently embodied ‘bodies’.

Experimental human-human and human-animal studies and longitudinal evaluation of the developed technology in social settings will support the development and delivery of mechanisms for verbal and non-verbal social interaction and communication; an autobiographic emotionally-tagged memory; mechanisms for detecting and responding sensitively to the user’s affective state, motives and intentions; an autonomous cognitive-affective architecture and support for migrating companions. These will be combined in case-studies of long-life companions that will take social technology to a new state-of-the-art.

http://lirec.org/

FP7

nik — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:10:53 +0000