Doing Nothing with AI 2.0

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Doing Nothing with AI 2.0 builds on Doing Nothing with AI 1.0 and extends its search from movement alone into a spatial experience. Where 1.0 optimizes a single robotic choreography, 2.0 simultaneously generates parametric sound and parametric visuals alongside the robot’s motion, expanding the aesthetic possibility space from a kinetic encounter into an immersive, multimodal search for each visitor’s individual state of doing nothing.

The system’s logic remains the same. An industrial robotic arm, guided by live EEG measurements and a generative machine learning model, continuously learns which combinations of movement, sound, and light bring its visitor closer to Default Mode Network activation. But with three modalities instead of one, the search space multiplies. The robot’s choreography drives a reactive sound field and projected visuals that shift in texture, rhythm, and intensity as the system learns.

This expansion changes the relational dynamic. In 1.0, the visitor faces a single moving body. In 2.0, the visitor is surrounded by an environment that adapts as a whole. The encounter shifts from observing a machine to inhabiting a space that is actively learning to attune itself to one’s unconscious state.

For further background, see this open-access publication at ACM TEI 2021: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3430524.3440647

Doing Nothing with AI 2.0 is the second work of the Doing Nothing with AI series. It has been exhibited at REAKTOR Vienna and Graz Museum.

Core Team

Emanuel Gollob – design, concept & research

Magdalena May – research

Veronika Mayer – sound art

Conny Zenk – visual art

Advice and support

Johannes Braumann – robotic support

Dr Orkan Attila Akgun – neuroscientific support

Magdalena Akantisz & Pia Plankensteiner – Graphic Design

Hardware | KUKA industrial robot | Enobio EEG cap | Muse EEG headband

Software | DCGAN | vvvv gamma | Robot Sensor Interface

Acknowledgments | Supported by Vienna Business Agency

References excerpt

Han, Byung-Chul. The burnout society. Stanford University Press, 2020.

Hayles, N. Katherine. “Hyper and deep attention: The generational divide in cognitive modes.” Profession (2007): 187-199.

Busch, Kathrin. P – Passivität. Textem Verlag, Hamburg, und Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg, 2012

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891. Bartleby, the Scrivener : a Story of Wall-Street, 1853.

Neuner, Irene, Jorge Arrubla, Cornelius J. Werner, Konrad Hitz, Frank Boers, Wolfram Kawohl, and N. Jon Shah. “The default mode network and EEG regional spectral power: a simultaneous fMRI-EEG study.” PLoS One 9, no. 2 (2014): e88214.

Raichle, Marcus E. “The brain’s default mode network.” Annual review of neuroscience 38 (2015): 433-447.