Panel Statement
Panel: SENSORIUM: Interdisciplinary Practices of Embodiment and Technology
The Emergence of Consciousness project uses performance art and digital technology in order to investigate the scientific study of consciousness and the possibilities of developing ‘machine consciousness’. The project is inspired by perspectives of embodiment as characterized by Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson and Eleanor Rosch and situatedness as applied to evolutionary robotics by Rodney Brooks. Dumitriu, artist in residence in the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at The University of Sussex, works with sensory and movement deprivation (e.g. blindfolds, physical restraints etc.) and augmentation, in an attempt to take on the role of a robotic agent herself and try to understand what it feels like to be a robot.
- Anna Dumitriu is an artist, currently Artist in Residency at the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics, Sussex University, while also undertaking PhD studies at the University of Brighton (UK). She has exhibited and presented work in a wide variety of contexts nationally and internationally, including: Whitechapel Gallery, The Institute of Unnecessary Research, Brighton, Photo Biennial Fringe, Futuresonic, Warwick University, Goldsmiths, University of London, HTTP gallery (UK); Novorsibirsk State Museum (Russia), Siggraph, New York Hall of Science, University of Florida Contemporary Art Museum (USA); ETH (Switzerland) and STEIM (Netherlands). Anna Dumitriu’s work blurs the boundaries between art and science. Her installations, interventions and performances use a range of digital, biological and traditional media including live bacteria, interactive media and textiles. Her work has a strong international exhibition profile and is held in several major public collections, including the Science Museum in London. She was a member of the e-MobiLArt project (the EU funded European Mobile Lab for Interactive Art) and Artist in Residence/Visiting Research Fellow since 2007 at The Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at Sussex University. She is known for her work as director of “The Institute of Unnecessary Research”, a group of artists and scientists whose work crosses disciplinary boundaries and critiques contemporary research practice. She is currently working on a Wellcome Trust funded art project entitled “Communicating Bacteria”, collaborating as a Vistiting Research Fellow: Artist in Residence with the Adaptive Systems Research Group at The University of Hertfordshire (focussing on social robotics) and is Leverhulme Trust Artist in Residence on the on the UK Clinical Research Consortium Project “Modernising Medical Microbiology”. She is a contributing editor to Leonardo Electronic Almanac. unnecessaryresearch.tumblr.com annadumitriu.tumblr.com Video: HUMAN+ MY ROBOT COMPANION
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