In conjunction with the Ars Electronica Human Factor – Endless Prototyping exhibition, three of the exhibiting artists will be presenting their works and offering insight into their creative projects on three Tuesdays in August. Artists will be interviewed by FluxFM radio host Jan Kage. Guests include Patrick Tresset, Liam Young and Tobias Nolte. All interviews will be held in English. Admission is free.
On August 2 at 18:30h, artist Patrick Tresset will present his installation Human Study #1, 3RNP in which human subjects are sketched by three robots serving in the role of artists. Tresset (FR/UK) has developed a series of theatrical installations featuring robots as the key players. He uses computer systems that integrate artistic, expressive and obsessive aspects into the behavior of the robot. His work has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Tate Modern (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), MMCA (Seoul), BOZAR (Brussels) and Prada Foundation (Milan) and presented at festivals and events including the Ars Electronica, Update_5, WRO 2015 and BIAN Montréal.
On August 9 at 18:30h the focus will be on the work of artist Liam Young, who is a member of the nomadic design research studio Unknown Fields Division. Young will present his exhibited work Rare Earthenware, which was developed based on a commission from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Rare Earthenware traces the roots of global supply chains for modern technologies to a radioactive lake where the raw materials are mines in the form of rare earth metals. Three vases made from the lake’s mud contain the same amount of toxic waste created in the production of a smartphone, a laptop and the cell of a smart car battery.
The series of artist’s talks concludes on August 16 at 18:30h with Tobias Nolte and a discussion of his work Mine the Scrap. As an alternative to costly recycling of construction-site waste materials, Mine the Scrap finds a new use for each small part. The software scans the material and calculates a way to combine the pieces into a new form. Tobias Nolte (GER) is a co-founder of the Certain Measures design studio. He previously worked as the director of Gehry Technologies in New York and head of the European office of Gehry Technologies in Paris, where he collaborated with renowned international design firms. He taught digital design at the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris and at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. He also worked for the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), the MIT and the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA).
The exhibition Human Factor – Endless Prototyping features artworks that address the key issues and challenges of the digital age and reflect the human factor in the context of its environment. Working at the interface between art, society and industry, some 30 international artists present creative prototypes aimed at resolving social, environmental and economic issues.