“The Sentient Thespian” by Adrianne Wortzel

Title:

The Sentient Thespian

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Exhibiting Artist(s):

Adrianne Wortzel

Symposium:

ISEA2020: 26th International Symposium on Electronic Art
More artworks from ISEA2020:

Creation Year:

2019

Medium:

Film

Artist Statement:

The Sentient Thespian depicts a 21st Century Midsummers Night Dream where a fully “sentient” robot for the fourth industrial revolution passionately seeks to imbue sentience on a human automaton and the industrial robot arm she conducts by casting a love spell on both of them; only to suffer disappointment that his powers can merely simulate, but never imbue, true sentience. As silent films were parables of the evolution of our society from agricultural to industrial, this sort film intimates the new electronic industrial age upon us and its effect on the concept of self-hood from the point of view of a machine that has achieved sentience.

Sponsors:

This project was the result of a ThoughtWorks Arts Residency, and was sponsored by the Consortium for Research & Robotics at Pratt Institute, and supported by Reach Robotics, Great Britain.