Josh Gumiela, Dave Ryan: dreamBot
Title:
- dreamBot
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
Venue(s):
Medium:
- Arduino, computer, digital fabrication, glass bottles, Max, PN532 RFID controller board, Python, RFID chips, sound.
Artist Statement:
That personal assistant you carry in your pocket is obsessed with understanding you. What role will the unconscious play in the way machines learn about and understand the human world?
Machine learning technologies presuppose that machines are able, through innumerable trials, to recognize patterns beyond human perception or comprehension. As these technologies are being deployed by commercial and political interests for the unprecedented targeting of the human psyche, it seems to be a good time to be raising questions about the technologies that we have come to take for granted. How does the machine parse human language every time you speak to it, for example, or type a search query in the form of a question? As we have conceded the term ‘learning’ to the computer, it also seems to be a good time to dig into technology’s epistemological project. What if these technologies, for unknown or undisclosed reasons, began mining the dark reaches of the human unconscious?
