At the Stadtwerkstatt Ars Electronica series 48×3, in cooperation with \u201eQuasikunst\u201c.<\/p>\n
Scroll down for the German text.<\/p>\n
\u201eThe reproduced artwork increasingly becomes the reproduction of an artwork designed to be reproduced.\u201c (Benjamin, Kunstwerkaufsatz)<\/p>\n
\u201eTHE ARTIST\u201c and \u201eTHE ROBOT\u201c; an asynchronous dialogue about the experience of presence.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Robot is present, transforms the legendary MOMA performance The Artist is Present by Maria Abramovic. Human presence is investigated in contrast to other presences. Visitors observe the potential AI as a humanoid robot. As they look at the cute, man-made machine, they are confronted with a mirror that reflects questions: Does the presence of AI, in contrast to the presence of the humanoid become perceivable? What is nonhuman, non-animal, non-vegetable presence? Can presence only immediately be experienced, or can it be technologically produced? If the production does not simulate a living being, what does become present? Can an automatisation of intelligent behaviour actually evoke emotions? Are emotions towards a non-living entity distinguished from emotions towards living entities? What share of the emotion do I have, and what share is that of the counterpart?<\/p>\n With this investigation the work is discussing both, the reproducibility of performance not as copy but as difference and repetition. The production of presence as phenomenon, not by means of liveliness but as a meta level of embodiment.<\/p>\n The Artist is Present was performed in a temple of high culture, a white cube. The MOMA in New York is a symbol for global high culture and supreme art. Abramovic in a gorgeous velvet dress at a table in the foyer with only one visitor, everything white in white, everything evenly illuminated, everything alludes to purity, is abstraction and the presentation of a personality, everything is focused loop-like on The Artist. The Robot is present takes place in the Ready Made of a work shop, a grey box. The perfect shiny shell of the humanoid robot produced via mass production, in an unevenly distributed light you can see the traces of human effort. The long endurance of the performer is contrasted to the upkeep of a humanoid robot. This reproduction of the performance with dissimilar, even a bit corrupted means, breaks up once more with the tradition of performance as an art form and allows for the investigation of the embodiment of man, as a technological reproducibility of presence.<\/p>\n Presence does not have its effect in the present, does not demand an act of observation, but rather of introspection. Since without any abstract potentiality it is sensually-involved impression. Notions that are taken for granted for the knowledge and assessment of contemporary technology, like intelligence and consciousness, are investigated concerning their antropomorphism involved. A point of reference at the horizon of this research is the development of adequate denotations of the phenomena that enlarge the narrow point of view of an antropomorphous interpretation of reality.<\/p>\n