an exhibition of graduate student artworks developed in the course Robots and Culture

Cleanrooms in the former CTS chip manufacturing building, 1201 Cumberland Avenue, West Lafayette, IN 47906

Friday, April 23, 2010: 6:00pm – 9:00pm (Reception)
Saturday, April 24, 2010: noon – 5:00pm

Mara Battiste

Nate Bench

Micah Bowers

Jordan Cleland

Esteban García

Aaron Nemec

David Wischer

The history of robots has always been closely connected not only to technological but also cultural and social issues. From early Renaissance automatons to contemporary entertainment, industry and military robots, the field of robotics is developing rapidly, and while robots have become increasingly ubiquitous in everyday life, they have also become important reflections of our own culture. The artists in ROBOTOPIA have investigated ideas and concepts central to the field of robotics as starting points for artistic interventions. Specifically, speculations about the future of the field - based on the knowledge of its past - have provided a rich source of ideas for the creation of new work. Some of these works have been influenced by the discussion of texts about the historical development of robots, concepts of robots in Asia and the West, robot ethics, robots and gender and different models for the functioning of a robot. Other works have been inspired by experiments with the basic technical parts of a robot - microcontrollers, actuators and sensors - and the exploration of their potential for artistic expression. After the initial exhibition of new works in the display cases in front of the Envision Center for Data Perceptualization at Purdue in February this year, ROBOTOPIA is the second exhibition of robotic artworks from the graduate seminar AD61600 Robots and Culture taught by Prof. Fabian Winkler in the area of Electronic and Time-Based Art in the Department of Art and Design at Purdue.

Picture on top of page: Mara Battiste, True Companion, 2010.

2018 Purdue University Electronic and Time-Based Art