The META MARATHON 2019 was organised by the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf in cooperation with the tanzhaus nrw and the Filmmuseum Düsseldorf. The Office medienwerk.nrw contributed the programme item “Robotic Swarm”.

42 hours non-stop living, loving, celebrating and working with robots: The META MARATHON 2019 was dedicated to the topic of robotics on March 15th – 17th, 2019. Visitors could not only take part in workshops, talks and performances, but also share their living space with robots, including the opportunity to stay overnight at the NRW-Forum and meet the probably currently most famous robot in the world, Sophia.

What happens when robots leave the industrial context and become part of our everyday life? What does society have to be prepared for when automated processes are carried out by machines and decisions are made without human intervention? How do robots change our actions and feelings? Are machines becoming more human-like or human emotions more machine-like? Can robots help us to relax and decelerate and what does a culture of intelligent robotics look like?

PROGRAM OF THE OFFICE medienwerk.nrw:

ROBOTIC SWARM
Presentation & Talk with Katrin Hochschuh, Adam Donovan, So Kanno.
Moderation: Klaas Werner
Sunday, 17.03., 11:00 am

The artist duo Katrin Hochschuh and Adam Donovan have invented, developed and programmed non-humanoid swarm robots. These were developed as antithesis or extension to humanoid robots like the famous “Sophia”. They want to show that non-humanoid robots can also learn and create a feeling of empathy and compassion.

In this event, presented by the office medienwerk.nrw, the artists showed how they work, both in the technical process and on a conceptual level, focusing primarily on their current work Empathy Swarm. Kanno, whose work Lasermice also deals with swarm behavior, joined the discussion.

The Office medienwerk.nrw was funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Office hosted by: Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund.