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| The youRobot is an automaton made of metal laminate, electronic circuits, plastic and wood tethered to a computer workstation. During an exhibition it is connected to the internet by email and instant messaging. It is equipped with a language synthesizer, writes poetry, blog entries, emails and text messages. John Rotundo made the metal laminate body. Debra Middleton made templates for the language synthesizer. It was constructed by Steve Middleton in Melbourne Australia during 2002. |
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"The quandry here is not 'where is the body', but how the body is represented. It is certainly suggested in what appears to be a display of cognitive function - the e-mail messages, the poetic texts and the space between the headset of the call-center operator. In a kind of Baudrillardian nightmare all traces of flesh have been devoured by the mirror and the machine, which spews forth the residue as code and text. The human body is absent. Its traces, in the form of glyphs across the smooth screen, challenge our conceptions of a subject that distills itself in communication technologies that distance corporeality from others. Suppose, as the AI suggests, there is life, and it lies secretly behind the conversations, then it mocks our own unseen and unnoticed internal body functions as pure automata. If we resist the notion that there is a body behind the texts, or that some spirit controls the function of the machine, then we are left with the question 'What can be said to be evidence of mind?' " - Julie Clarke 2002 Melbourne | ||
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 photograph by David Atkinson 2006 Melbourne
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The head is made from a call centre operator`s headset.  photograph David Atikinson 2006 Melbourne | ||
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Temporary voice-mail messages are expected to be monitored as soon as possible. Internal entitlements must be removed promptly. Unauthorised items must be reported shortly. Personal voice-mail messages should be assessed promptly. Home-based errors must be minuted by close of business. Unauthorised arrangements are expected to be assessed as soon as possible.. Frivolous communications are referred to management when detected. Unnecessary items are expected to be referred to management promptly. Administrative discrepancies should be deleted when detected.  photograph by David Atkinson melbourne 2006 The youRobot at work at Gallery 9 in Melbourne Australia. | ||
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 the youRobot at First Site Gallery Melbourne 2002 photograph Steve Middleton 2002 Melbourne A meteor near a lotus continued liquidly near a black hole. A galaxy behind a rose swerved mainly far from a galaxy. The fox over the gene jumped suddenly far from a planet. A galaxy over the artificial life jumped swiftly under a moon. A rain over a rose flew slowly near the planet. A meteor with a lotus slowed down mainly under a spaceship. A black hole under the simulation went liquidly near a comet. A fox under the forest hovered erratically near the star. An asteroid near a daffodil flew swiftly on an asteroid. The fox near the rose flew mainly near an asteroid. A sun under a gene stopped erratically under the rain. The galaxy close to a gene slowed down swiftly near the planet. A spaceship near the home flew erratically behind a rain. | ||
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