Robot Report!

Back in snowy days of December, I started a post I intended to call "Robot Report!" But my creative steam ran low (and I may have been woozy from nog) so I offered a few random videos of amusing automatons instead. Today is no better, steam-wise, so I'm going to post two quick fillers because we're already four days into a new month without a new entry on Culture Shock.

First stop is a kinetic sculpture, "Protest," by interdisciplinary artist Heidi Kumao--part of a series entitled "Misbehaving: Media Machines Act Out." I appreciate the talents of my human actor and dancer friends, but have to applaud the emotional range expressed by this simple machine.

Our second stop is “Sleepwalking,” a collaboration between artist Fernando Orellana with robotics/software engineer, Brendan Burns. Orellana arranged to have his brainwave activity recorded during R.E.M. sleep, then imposed it on a robot to guide its movements--exploring a way to play back one's dreams.