[ISEA2019] Artist Statement: Bill Vorn — Embodying Robot Performance

Artist Statement

Keywords: Robotic Art, Performance, Anthropomorphism, Projection, Empathy, Robot, Machine

This Artist Talk proposal covers the description of two of our newest works in Robotic Art: Copacabana Machine Sex and Twin Bodies. Copacabana Machine Sex is a musical robotic cabaret involving solely biomorphic machines as musicians and dancers. It displays a metaphorical extravaganza about robots and carnivals, where music hall kitsch and industrial aesthetics intermix. The Twin Bodies project is inspired in part by recent artistic experiments in the realization of anthropomorphic robots. With this project, we aim to produce a series of robotic “doubles” of a human performer (Chun Hua Catherine Dong), characters with which she will interact on stage in very specific situations, sometimes very intimate, sometimes very wild.

  • Based in Montreal, Canada, Bill Vorn is working in the field of Robotic Art since more than twenty-five years. His installation and performance projects involve robotics and motion control, sound, lighting, video and cybernetic processes. He pursues research and creation on Artificial Life and Agent Technologies through artistic work based on the “Aesthetics of Artificial Behaviors”. He teaches Electronic Arts in the Department of Studio Arts at Concordia University (Intermedia program) where he is Full Professor. His work has been presented in many international events, including Ars Electronica, ISEA, DEAF, Sonar, Art Futura, EMAF and Artec. He has been awarded the Vida 2.0 award (1999, Madrid), the Leprecon Award for Interactivity (1998, New York), the Prix Ars Electronica Distinction award (1996, Linz) and the International Digital Media Award (1996, Toronto). He has worked in collaboration with many Canadian artists (including Edouard Lock, Robert Lepage, Gilles Maheu, Istvan Kantor and Louis-Philippe Demers).

Copacabana Machine Sex and Twin Bodies have been made possible with the help of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec.

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