Press me kinetic installation

ISEA2010RUHR

2010-08-18T19:17:00.005+02:00

Today we've finished installing at ISEA2010RUHR, Dortmund, RWE Galerie (Freistuhl 7). The installation is still a bit unstable, we might need to work on it, or we can accept that the little creatures have their own lifespan, and let them check out as they feel worn out.
Some of the photos may be misleading, the sun was shining for about half an hour since we arrived, otherwise it's constantly raining. The press tour was held today, we gave some interviews in the early afternoon. One of them was for a radio, so we had to tell how our installation looks like. Opening tomorrow.

intermezzo

2010-08-14T15:42:00.003+02:00

Preparing to ISEA, I've been to Pepe's Toys today, to get some replacement buddies, may some of them go wrong. I felt a bit disappointed. Almost all the old types of the toys we used were missing. It might be a problem later, because they usually don't last very long.
But I've also found a new one, which is totally amazing! It has new and really sophisticated mechanisms. I'll try to put one or two in the installation. See:

US tour

2010-08-08T13:01:00.002+02:00

After the Asian and European tour, our twittering machines visit the US this Autumn. Listen to them at Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts, Minneapolis.

Our installation at ISEA 2010

2010-08-08T12:35:00.007+02:00

The installation got invited to ISEA 2010, the 16th International Symposium on Electronic Art. Check out their programme, ISEA will take place in Ruhr, Germany between 20 - 29 August.

Twittering on art in Istanbul

2010-08-08T12:14:00.003+02:00

AI gymnastics

2009-11-06T14:42:00.004+01:00

We've just finished with setting up the robots in Istanbul. We exhibit in a funny place, an old gym in an old house. So now there a lot of robots, avatars, AIs are gathering in an old gym. The vernissage is today. Will post more photos later.

Our Robots are facing to East

2009-11-01T11:36:00.005+01:00

We got invited to amber'09 Art and Technology Festival. It takes place in Istanbul from 6th to 15th of November.

The social, cultural and political consequences of exposing and augmenting our bodies will be explored. There will be a bunch of interesting installations and lectures going on there. Among others, i'm very interested in the keynote speaker, Stelarc's Prostetic Head. Join us there or online.

A longer one

2009-08-11T21:44:00.003+02:00

Tiny Video

2009-07-31T23:32:00.006+02:00

We have a tiny video on the exhibition. Please check it. Longer video comes later!

Photos again

2009-07-25T23:24:00.000+02:00

Thanks for the nice photos to Zoltán Csík-Kovács! Here you can find more of them.

Vernissage

2009-07-07T23:28:00.003+02:00

Our exhibition has opened. It can be viewed until about the end of the month. The vernissage turned out to be quite succesful, there were so many people. We didn't even have enough space for everyone to hear Nina Czeglédy's kind words.

Update

2009-06-28T21:25:00.004+02:00

We've occupied the gallery on Saturday! :-)
The paintings are obviously not ours, they are from the previous exhibition.

Exhibition details

2009-06-23T13:37:00.009+02:00

Where is Your Art?
kinetic sound installation

where: Deák Erika Galéria
when: 31 June 2009 - 25 July 2009
opening: Tuesday 30 June, 18.00-20.00 p.m.
opens: Nina Czegledy media artist, curator and writer

Robots at home

2009-06-22T14:29:00.002+02:00

This is how the robots look like right now

Opening the exhibition

2009-06-22T13:52:00.001+02:00

photo by KIBU

Here comes more info on Nina Czegledy, who opens the event. Thanks, Nina!

Nina Czegledy, media artist, curator and writer works internationally on collaborative art& science& technology projects. She has produced time based and digital works, won awards for her artwork and exhibited widely. Czegledy has lead and participated in workshops, forums and festivals worldwide. Her academic lectures lead to numerous publications in books and journals.
Czegledy exhibited with the ICOLS group in Australia, the US (2004-2005) with the Girls& Guns collective's in Europe (2005). "What will you do to cool the earth?" a public art project in collaboration with Greg Judelman and Daniel Barber was commissioned by the City of Toronto in 2007 and presented in 2009 at the Govett-Brewster Gallery in New Zealand. Resonance, the Electromagnetic Bodies Project, Digitized Bodies Virtual Spectacles, Points of Entry and the Aurora touring projects initiated by Czegledy, focus on the changing perception of the environment and the human body and are presented via on-line and on-site events internationally. Czegledy curated numerous digital art and video programs presented in more than 30 countries. President of Critical Media a Canadian based Knowledge Institute,. Czegledy, is a Senior Fellow, KMDI, University of Toronto, Associate Adjunct Professor Concordia University, Montreal, Honorary Fellow, Moholy Nagy University of Design, Budapest, member of the international space art network, co-chair of the Leonardo Education Forum (LEF), executive board member of Increate.org (NZ) board member of Leonardo/ISAST, member of the OLATS scientific community and and ex-officio chair of ISEA.

Tweet on Art for us

2009-06-21T18:33:00.000+02:00

If you tweet on art during the exhibition, there is a great chance that your tweet will be told by our robots. You can even try it out at the opening event.

Animals? Robots?

2009-06-18T22:39:00.005+02:00

I have a few words about our relationship to these creepy little object.
Pepe's toy store is located on Kőbányai street, in the huge chinese market which consists of Four Tigers market on the left side, and a vast amount of wholesale stores on the right side. Pepe Toys is on the right side.
When we first saw these senseless singing-dancing plush-covered toys, even we didn't think of what's inside, we just collected some with many others in 2007, during the preparations for the Paris exhibition of re:orient. Then the idea came already in KIBU to take a look inside and see what's under the plush cover. What we found fascinated us so much, it was obvious for the first moment that we'll use these toys undressed. The process of getting rid of the plush and the wadding evoked some kind of acquittance, or redemption. It felt like revealing the real substance of these little creatures, getting rid of their masque and show their genuine face. This genuineness along with some anthropomorphic, or animic charachter (legs, arms, head, or feelers) strengthened this feeling. What's more, every one of them can appear in different forms. The same core can be dressed like a cow, a frog or a puppy.
The third exhibition upcoming by now, it's something really familiar to go to Pepe. We browse among the toys, we already know the toys we want, or if we find a new kind, we can tell by the touch, what type of mechanical core is inside. Well, at least, most of the times. Last time I've ought three cows. I thoght they are of a type I already know, only a bit differently dressed. When I freed them, surprisingly they turned out to be the funniest little bozos of all.

We have a new contributor

2009-06-17T09:36:00.005+02:00

His name is Juhász Márton András. He has pretty funny fields of interest, such as neurocybernetics, robotics and chaos theory. Right now, he works at KIBU as a researcher. Marci's algorithm collects the feed from Twitter and delivers the sign to the robots. Besides, he set up a pretty nice audio system for our plush fellows.

New istallation forming

2009-06-16T20:10:00.010+02:00

Thinking about how to install our new project phase, we've thrown up many ideas about how to place our little robots in the available space (not to mention the activities the robots will do, that's the topic of a forthcoming post). It was Barbara's idea to bring something natural element into it, just to enrich the relation between the robots' technic look and their animal- or human-like character. There was another problem, to bring them up to the height of the perceiver without building pedestals, which would make them more like regular art pieces. We really want to avoid that, these aren't sculptures. Anything that holds the robots should be something organic, like legs for example. Something that can work as a part of a whole, not just like a separate structure.
Thus came the idea of long flexible supports, that can hold the robots high, and can be associated with something natural, like grass or reed.

The actual objects will consist of a steel foot, a fishing rod and another steel piece to fix the robots to. The rods are
nice black and slightly swing under the move of the robot.

The new installation

2009-05-28T16:18:00.004+02:00

Our robots are still connected together, but this time they are tweeting as well. They are connected to Twitter and whenever a new tweet about ART appears, a text to speech software translates it and one of the robots shares the tweet with the others in human voice.

Plush is back!

2009-05-28T14:51:00.005+02:00

We are back with a new concept and an upcoming exhibition! It will open at the end of July at Deak Erika Gallery. So stay tuned!

Press Me exhibition at Holdudvar Gallery

2008-07-01T17:20:00.002+02:00

Happy audience

2008-06-02T16:28:00.007+02:00

According to the attendants, our robots have wide success. Generally, guys are interested in the technical details of the installation. Women try to imitate the dance of the robots. And the absolute fans are the kids...

Vernissage at Holdudvar Gallery

2008-05-30T22:06:00.009+02:00

The Reneszánsz 2.00.8 group exhibition - for which our installation has also been chosen - has opened on 22th May at Holdudvar Gallery. The opening speech was told by Lendvai Ádám.
More info on the exhibition can be found here or here
Photo by Pfeffer Attila

Photo by Pfeffer Attila

Under construction at Holdudvar Gallery

2008-05-22T00:06:00.007+02:00

2008-05-17T23:09:00.005+02:00

The guys have not been connected yet

A little snip and snap inside

Singing plush toys in asynchronous mode

2008-05-15T11:34:00.003+02:00

We tried to create chorus of the toys singing the same song, but it turned out that the same song has different duration in every toy! Weird, isn't it?

When the plush dresses are still on...

2008-05-14T23:14:00.015+02:00

what is a robot?

2008-05-10T22:32:00.001+02:00

“While there is still discussion about which machines qualify as robots, a typical robot will have several, though not necessarily all of the following properties:

* is not ‘natural’ i.e. artificially created
* can sense its environment, and manipulate or interact with things in it
* has some ability to make choices based on the environment, often using automatic control or a preprogrammed sequence
* is programmable
* moves with one or more axes of rotation or translation
* makes dexterous coordinated movements
* appears to have intent or agency (See anthropomorphism for examples of ascribing intent to inanimate objects.)”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot

Exhibition

2008-05-07T22:29:00.009+02:00

We’ve been invited to the media art group exhibition Renaissance 2.00.8 organized by Videospace Gallery. The exhibition will be at Holdudvar Gallery, it opens at 7 pm on Thursday 22 May. Join us if you can!

At this occasion our simple installation will consist of a leader (he is a dog in yellow rain coat holding an umbrella) and 18-20 robots, all triggered by the dog's pushbutton. Don't be afraid to press it!

Sketch of the installation to be shown in Holdudvar Gallery

Inspiration

2008-05-04T21:30:00.014+02:00

Our robotic installation was heavily inspired by the Hungarian Pavilion’s concept in the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2006 where our team was reflecting to the usage of cheap, ubiquitous Chinese plastic toys. The installation in the Hungarian Pavilion provided a kind of alternative architectural experiment based on DIY methodology.

The Biennale exhibition

Yet, there is one point where press me installation differs from the one in the Pavilion. Instead of focusing to the structures of the DIY environment, this time we intend to highlight the relation between human and machine, users and their objects. Furthermore, we would like to refer to a kind of interaction critique. (More comes later…)

The installation in Institut Hongrois, Paris

But the actual basis of press me itself was the piece we made in Paris in November 2007 in Institut Hongrois, still as part of the re:orient experience. It became clear there that the most exciting point of the whole project for us wasn't really interactivity or the specific ambience we can achieve using these toys, but the toys themselves, their grotesque charm, the contradiction between the kitchy look, the pathetic ditties and the junk-technology inside.
Maybe this is why next time - compared to the piece in Paris - we're stripping down the installation to the basics, the robots themselves and we'll take a look what they can achieve by themselves, connected to form a quite simple network. We intend to consider this as a new starting point from which our play with these toys can take a new direction.

about the concept

2008-05-02T22:25:00.007+02:00

Briefly, we wish to introduce a kind of robot aesthetics which is hidden in every Chinese moving plush toy. One can find these country singer cats, freestyler pigs or singing dog brides almost everywhere on the planet.

Since our original concept was to rethink some low-cost, low-tech Chinese gadget, we took off these plush toys’ fur and we got some greyish object consists of weird lashed-together plastic. Thus, they totally lost their featureless and kitschy look. Interestingly enough, they got some technicist and anthropomorphic feature. Our team has started to play around with these robotic figures and you can check the results on this blog.