[ISEA95] Artist Statement: Simon Penny — Petit Mal

Artist Statement

Petit Mal is a lightweight, autonomous mobile device which displays interactive emergent behavior in real space. It explores indoor public spaces and responds to people. Petit Mal is a piece of “reflexive technology” which seeks to offer a commentary on modern robotics. Changes in behavior are a product of an ongoing sense of its own ‘body’. A Petit Mal in neurological terminology is a short lapse of consciousness. The project was conceived in 1989 and built from 1993 to 1995.

  • Simon Penny is an Australian artist working with interactive and robotic installations and an associate Professor of Art and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. He is editor of Critical lssues in Electronic Media (SUNY Press 1995). He curated Machine Culture, on international survey of interactive art at SIGGRAPH 93.