𝙙𝙞𝙨𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴

disarming is a performative exploration of the relation between detached robot arms, artificial environments, and human observers. A learning and unlearning of locomotions in postanthropocentric environments and times. The work playfully explores the ambiguity of disarming as a process of physical detachment and emotional attachment.

Locomotion can be seen as a primal (post-birth) instinct and ultimate act of independence. A robotic limb, somehow detached from a human-constructed technological body, tries to find concepts for advancing movements even though it initially wasn’t made for locomotion – vulnerable yet determined. Parallel to a familiar dystopian plot of technological autonomy and the feelings going with it, witnessing these first clumsy tries may awaken compassion or even a certain emotional bond.

disarming paints a picture of a multi-layered narrative of technology as a convoluted species in an ecological system of intertwined digital and physical realms with parallel learning/unlearning on different levels. A relational world with and between independence and still connectedness.

𝙙𝙞𝙨𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 prelim(b)inary learning-unlearning (still)

𝙙𝙞𝙨𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 1.0. 1.16 min Teaser. Full Length: Endless. The same reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm that in the field learns how to locomote a robotic body is learning to select and array the video scenes in real-time, 4K, 2022 robotic motions with learning/unlearning of locomotions in a fallow field

𝙙𝙞𝙨𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 1.0. Durational Robotic Performance, 4 x 4 x 2 m, 2022 learning/unlearning of locomotions in an artificial fallow cornfield in the courtyard of BC Gallery Basel

Core Team

Emanuel Gollob – research, concept & production

Magdalena May – camera & text

Advice and support

Silvia, Johann & Friederike Gollob – farming & fieldwork support

Amir Bastan – real-time robot control

Creative Robotics – robotic hardware support

Ben May – exhibition production at BC Gallery Basel

Hardware | KUKA industrial robot arm | Mini PC | fallow cornfield

Software | Reinforcement Learning | vvvv gamma | bunraku.xyz | Robot Sensor Interface

Acknowledgments | Supported by BC Gallery Basel