About the Project:

This project was put together as part of the IART 600 Performance in New Media Practice and Theory course with Thecla Schiphorst.

This project is multi-layered. It is about exploring the Lego Mindstorms robotic invention system as a means of expression.

It is also about process-- a bricolage process where there are no clear goals, just a continuous building of ideas. Seymour Papert (the godfather of Mindstorms) and Sherry Turkle's paper on the epistimology of programming (Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete) interested me in the later through their research into the differences between programming style in men and women.

The following is a multimedia journal documenting my progress on this project. It is compiled from handwritten notes and video taken of the process/progress. As mostly raw data, it is at once fragmentary and overly detailed.

* Special thanks to Jim Budd for the use of his Mindstorms kits and sensors.*

Project in Action:

Day 1 : Thinking about Mindstorms

Day 2 : What I have got myself in to

Day 3 : Exploring and Shopping

Day 4 : CBC presents An Idea

Day 5 : A Concept for the Installation

Day 6 : Recipe for a Robot

Day 7 : Lego Building and Programming

Day 8 : Vision Command comes together

Day 9 : The Installation

Day 10 : Reflection

Links & Examples:

Ken Rinaldo

Kari Martin: Sculpting with Data

Ullanta: Performing Robots

Posthuman or Para-ego?
Interactive Models of Human-Technology Relations (Zoe Sofoulis)