“Inverse Human” by Peter Coppin
Still from Vimeo
Title:
- Inverse Human
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
- ISEA97: Eighth International Symposium on Electronic Art
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More artworks from ISEA97:
Artist Statement:
1/human (inverse human) is a robotic device that can be attached to the upper body. By operating the controller on the left hand a user can ‘teach’ the robotic exoskeleton covering the right arm various movements.
In the teaching program muscular autonomy is conceded to mechanical autonomy: the arm moves the machine until the machine moves the arm.Th e robot’s microprocessor monitors arm movements, and learns common patterns that are executed by the arm. After a time the robots artificial intelligence algorithms create new patterns based on the separate movements. At this time the processor begins to manage the movements of the arm, forcing its artificially intelligent processes upon the wearer. This configuration traces the role of technology, where technology is the imposition of human thought and will upon non-human matter. Mechanisms, electronics, and computers replicate human processes and thoughts in such a way that non-human “thoughts” and “will” are possible. Though on one level this meta-human mechanic thought gains patterns from the human, these non-human thoughts also re define what it means to be a human, especially within industrialized societies. 1/Human achieves this by surrounding the body, intersecting it by projecting mechanic will within the human; at the same time allowing human will to project into the robot using artificial computer learning. Artificial learning maps human will into binary code, the translatable, transferable, and universal language of machine will. Machine will then redefines the human encased by 1/human as the mechanism begins to dominate the human’s activity. In the end, the human is a prosthetic for larger incomprehensible structures-structures that result from an on going dialectic between technology and human will over the course of history.
Technical Information:
1/human (inverse human) is a robotic device that can be attached to the upper body. By operating the controller on the left hand a user can ‘teach’ the robotic exoskeleton covering the right arm various movements.
Sponsors:
The Centre for Metahuman Exploration
