220V Robotics
The third program in the 220V series, "220V Robotics" discussed robotics as its central theme, and included an exhibition and a Wiretap-conference.
The Ancestral Path
220V Robotics is the title of a presentation in art and society. The program consists of a large exhibition of about 50 robots and a conference on robotics.
For years now technological development is associated with the images of robots in movies like Metropolis by Fritz Lang and the Terminator series with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The shiny steel robots from older movies have been replaced by more 'soft' robots that can acquire any form and identity. The movie-robot has become more human over time, man and machine seem to be merged.
The robot is more than ever before an image that stirs the imagination. The human shape, the robot often has, seems to suggest that man eventually will be capable of self-reproduction and that there are no limits to technological development to achieve this. In this scenario, man and machine merge to cyborgs.
The robot is also a big challenge for artists, Jean Tinguely and Nam June Paik are famous examples, but also Andy Warhol's statement that he wishes to be a robot is a reference to this. For the artist there is not only the technical challenge but also artistic, cultural and social ones.
During 220V Robotics we presented both the spectacular robots by Amorphic Robot Works and a conference on recent artistic and scientific research in the field of robotics.
