Curator Statement

In the Signs of Life: Robot Incubator exhibition there are robots that look like machines but display human-like psychological behaviours, a humanoid robot that looks like a sculpture come to life, a doll-like robotic automaton performer and interactive modular robots that display hybrid machinic/biomorphic characteristics. Robots aren’t born biologically. They are designed, built, programmed and incubated by their human parents as they develop and grow through different versions and iterations. The artists in this exhibition show a diverse range of evolving robotic progeny from the machinic to the humanoid. Although very different in their appearance, these robots all display emergent signs of life and personality through their behaviour and movement. ARTISTS: Kirsty Boyle; John Tonkin; Mari Velonaki.

• Dr. Kathy Cleland is a curator, writer and researcher specialising in new media art and digital culture. She is Director of the Digital Cultures Program at The University of Sydney, an innovative cross-disciplinary program that critically investigates the social and cultural impacts of new digital media technologies. Her curatorial projects include the Cyber Cultures exhibition series which toured to over 20 venues in Australia and New Zealand (2000 – 2003), the Mirror States exhibition (2008) at MIC Toi Rerehiko, Auckland, NZ and Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, and Face to Face: portraiture in a digital age, an exhibition that toured Australia and Asia (2008-2011). Kathy is a founding member of Robot Cultures, a research initiative set up by the Digital Cultures Program and the Social Robotics Centre at the University of Sydney, and her current area of research is the investigation of audience responses to robotic and screen-based entities. Her exhibition Signs of Life: Robot Incubator is part of the exhibition program at ISEA2011 in Istanbul. She is on the Organising Committee and is Chair of the Curatorium Committee for ISEA2013 Sydney.

Images (PDF) p. 238-241