2016-2017 Roaming Academy 1: In Dialogue with Robotics

Students: Agata Cieślak, Rabea Ridlhammer, Benedicte Clementsen, Katja den Dulk, Elvis Krstulovic, Iva Kovač, Kim Forni, Malcolm Kratz, Mira Adoumier, Olga Micińska, Sonia Kazovsky, Sunghoon Kim, Ulufer Çelik and Giulia Crispiani as auditor. 

In Dialogue with Robotics - What can and what should we learn about and from robotics without ceding sound judgment to the tragic scenario of the rise of robots and the end of humanity? Curated and tutored by Bassam El Baroni.

In Dialogue with Robotics is primarily interested in the connection between technology and human psychology through an investigation of robots as inventions that have infiltrated the artistic, philosophical, cultural, and social imaginary for long over a century.   It seeks to look closely at the field of robotics from a basic technical, socio-political, and artistically oriented philosophical perspective bringing how the field actually is and the popular imaginary related to automation and robots to close proximity. The programme will work with different guest lecturers who will be invited to co-lead sessions. Topics will range from discussions around the emerging field of Robophilosophy (described by Johanna Seibt as “philosophy of, for, and by social robotics”) to cinema and TV portrayals of robots, to questions around the links between robotics, computational neuroscience, philosophy of mind, the economy, the market, and human labour. The programme is meant to work as a driver and explorative field that will provide participants with a strong multi-dimensional research focus that may be used to develop presentations, performances, and art works in a non-limited sense. Through discussions a final project will emerge and will be produced to have a public outcome. In addition to the regular monthly programme in Arnhem this Roaming Academy will embark on a research trip that will help establish further connections between politics, aesthetics, philosophy, robotics, and artificial intelligence, this while actually exploring the field of robotics up close and pragmatically. The programme is in development and details regarding the research trip and the programme will be announced on a monthly basis.

Roaming Academy 1: In Dialogue with Robotics from Month to Month