ROBOTS AND AVATARS – OUR COLLEAGUES AND PLAYMATES OF THE FUTURE
Interdisciplinary exhibition
Maribor, Slovenia, October 5–30, 2012
Opening: Friday, October 5, at 8 pm
Venues:
Multimedia Centre KIBLA, Ulica kneza Koclja 9, entrance from Svetozarevska street, Maribor, Slovenia
KIT KIBLA, Glavni trg 14, Maribor, Slovenia

Exhibiting artists:
Martin Hans Schmitt (DE) / Louis Philippe Demers – Processing Plant (CA/DE) / Ruairi Glynn – Motive Colloquies (UK) / Michael Takeo Magruder, Drew Baker, Erik Fleming, David Steele (UK) / Marco Donnarumma (UK) / Martin Bricelj Baraga, Slavko Glamočanin / MoTA (SI) / Mey Lean Kronemann (DE) / Sašo Sedlaček (SI) / Niki Passath (AT) / Andre Almeida, Gonçalo Lopes, Francisco Dias, Guilherme Martins (PT) / Matthieu Cherubini (CH) / Aymeric Mansoux, Dave Griffiths, Marloes de Valk (FR, UK, NL) / Salvatore Iaconesi, Oriana Persico – Art is Open Source (IT)

Robots and avatars – our colleagues and playmates of the future is an interdisciplinary exhibition based on technological objects and extensions such as robots, avatars, virtual worlds, telepresence and real time presence in correlation to social creative places, cultural environments, interactive entertainment and play space. This interconnected framework of events comprises selected mobile exhibition artworks, workshop learning experiences, and artist interviews and discussions.
Robots and Avatars exhibition departs from pop culture imagery and re-imagines these technologies for a new reality: how do we envisage our future relationships with robot and avatar colleagues and playmates, and at what point does this evolution cross our personal boundaries of what it is to be a living, feeling human being?

Debates:

Debate Robots and Avatars No. 1:
Ethics and Behaviours – of robots and avatars in real world usage
Introduction and moderation: Ghislaine Boddington (body>data>space)
Artists’ input to a specific question about ethics and behaviours in relationship to their work in the exhibition and how they see this relating to the “real world” evolving around us: Mey Lean Kronnermann, Michael Takeo Magruder, Niki Passath, Martin Hans Schmitt, Martin Bricelj Baraga
Experts overview/comments: Jože Slaček, Istvan Szakats, Peter Tomaž Dobrila
Date: 5th of October 2012, from 6 pm till 8 pm
Venue: Multimedia Centre KIBLA, Ulica kneza Koclja 9, entrance from Svetozarevska street, Maribor, Slovenia

Debate Robots and Avatars No. 2:
Artificial Intelligence – evolutions in robotics and virtual worlds
Introduction and moderation: Ghislaine Boddington (body>data>space)
Context set-up/ present situation on AI/slide show: Noel Sharkey, Professor of AI and Robotics at the University of Sheffield.
Artists’ inputs on AI in relationship to their work in the exhibition; how they see this relating to the “real world” evolving around us and where will AI be in these worlds of representation 10 years from now: Louis Philippe Demers, Drew Baker, Marco Donnarumma, Ruairi Glyn
Experts: Istvan Szakats, Peter Tomaž Dobrila, Cameron Bobro, Denis Savkić
Date: 6th of October 2012, from 7pm till 9pm
Venues: Multimedia Centre KIBLA, Ulica kneza Koclja 9 (entrance from Svetozarevska street) and KIT KIBLA, Glavni trg 14, Maribor, Slovenia

Open call:

Learning experience: Visions of Our Communal Dreams
Mentors: Michael Takeo Magruder and Drew Baker (UK)
Date: October 2–4, 2012, 3 pm – 7 pm
Venue: KIT KIBLA, Glavni trg 14, Maribor, Slovenia

Learning experience: Klackerlaken/Clack Roach
building solderless glowing vibrobots hands-on workshop for kids and grown-ups
Mentor: Mey Lean Kronemann (DE)
Date: October 6, 2012, 4 pm – 6 pm
Venue: MMC KIBLA, Ulica kneza Koclja 9, entrance from Svetozarevska street, Maribor, Slovenia

More: arhiv.kiblix.org/kiblix2012/ra

The exhibition is part of the RACIF project, coordinated by body>data>space, London (UK) and partners AltArt, Cluj-Napoca, Romania and KIBLA, Maribor, Slovenia. The project is supported by Programme Culture of the European Union. The Slovenian version is financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia and co-produced with Maribor 2012 – European Capital of Culture.