INTERFACE: Robotics

What artistic and expressive possibilities emerge at the intersection of robotics and art making? How might technology augment the creative body?

Musician, composer, and instrument builder Qiujiang Levi Lu joins RPI’s Russell Sage Professor John Wen for a conversation on the relationships between bodies, machines, perception, and creative practice.

Together, they consider how advances in robotics can create new possibilities for artists and how artistic experimentation can pose new questions for robotics. What new system-theoretic tools are necessary for advances in robotics and their application to creative projects? How do these tools intersect with artistic practices and do-it-yourself approaches to developing new hardware?

Through examples from their work, Lu and Wen explore what happens when machines become more than tools: collaborators, instruments, extensions of the body, and platforms for experimentation.

Stay afterward for refreshments and informal conversation at Evelyn’s Café.