Artist Statement 

June 12, MACBA – Convent dels Àngels. Session: Speculative environments

Keywords: Emotion AI, machine learning, biomedical signals, affective computing

Intelligent Habitat consists of an intelligent immersive audiovisual environment (IAE), featuring multichannel sound and video projections generated in real-time. The IAE is constantly modified by visitors via diverse technologies, mainly Facial Emotion Recognition (FER) combined with other body signals: ECG (Electrocardiogram), GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) and/or BCI (Brain Computer Interface).

The main aim of the artistic project described hereby is to create an intelligent audiovisual installation exploring the combination of technologies such as biomedical signals and machine learning techniques used in affective computing (also known as Emotion Artificial Intelligence), in order to create an intelligent environment capable of recognising the emotional state of visitors and react empathetically. Furthermore, such environment is hereby conceived as a prototype of possible future homes, where the space itself is able to recognise the emotional current condition of its inhabitants and produce an empathetic reaction. In a first stage, visitors are not only audio-and visually confronted with their own current emotional state, but also are invited to raise awareness about the possibility of future home technologies and their implications. Consequently, this fact does not limit participation of common visitors, but also and specially invites scientists, artists, philosophers and producers and consumers of global digital technologies to a fundamental discussion about how our future homes may be and how new technologies inside them may or may not be beneficial to everyone’s well-being.

• Claudia Robles-Angel is a new media and audiovisual artist. Her work and research cover different aspects of visual and sound art, which extend from audiovisual fixed-media compositions to performances and installations interacting with biomedical signals. She has been artist-in-residence in several outstanding institutions, for example at ZKM (Karlsruhe) and at the ICST-ZHdK in Zurich. Her work is constantly featured in not only media and sound-based festivals/conferences but also in group and solo exhibitions around the globe, for example, the ZKM Karlsruhe; KIBLA Centre Maribor, Bauhaus Museum Berlin; Festival de la Imagen Manizales, DRHA2010 Sensual Technologies London; SIGGRAPH Asia Yokohama; Re-New Festival Copenhagen; New Interfaces for Musical Expression NIME Os-lo; ISEA Istanbul, Manizales and Durban, CAMP audiovisual concert – Salon Suisse, Official collateral event of the 55th Venice Biennale, Audio Art Festival Cracow, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center NYC, Museum of Contemporary Art MAC Bogotá, MADATAC Madrid, ADAF Athens, Hero-ines of Sound Berlin. http://www.claudearobles.de