The Ultimate Aesthetic Experience, Haakon Faste (USA) - 2nd classified
http://www.haakonfaste.com

Name, surname Haakon Faste
Title of the artwork entrant: The Ultimate Aesthetic Experience
Year: Ongoing (2007—)

Technical description:

Perceptual robotics is the use of robotic and multimodal display systems as a platform for sensory interface with real or virtual worlds. Well implemented perceptual robotic interfaces provide:

1. Fully immersive and believable interaction with virtual or tele-operated worlds, including the sense of touch, force feedback, and presence in that world.
2. Intuitive perception of the robot as an extension of the user’s body and mind.
3. Insight into human perception through this interaction, which may be used in the development of more intelligent interface systems that are capable of perceiving and learning autonomously.

It is my intent to use perceptual robotic technology as a development platform for The Ultimate Aesthetic Experience, an immersive multimodal robotic art interface installation. The behavior of this interface, a complex and nuanced expressive environment, emerges through kinesthetic interaction between the human and robot. A conceptual overview of the development process and its specific goals is outlined in the section below.

Image 1

This piece consists of a darkened room containing a specialized perceptual robotic interface device, immersive 3D virtual environment, audio speakers, Infitec glasses and a stereoscopic projection screen. The robot is sensitive to input forces and internally actuated in relation to its environment such that it cooperates as tool to provide interactive force feedback. The users’ glasses are tracked by a long-range Polhemus electromagnetic sensor in real time, allowing spatial exploration of the virtual world as it is being created. Visual display is projected within a CAVE-like [1] rear-projection system driven by two superimposed high resolution projectors connected to a PC rendering the virtual world. Real-time positional information of the user’s eyes is processed by the Polhemus system and passed to the rendering engine on the PC to generate the appropriate perspective for each of the user’s eyes, allowing immersive exploration of the virtual space. The environment is written in XVR (eXtreme VR), a C++-based scripting language designed for mechatronic device integration, high-speed graphics and online network rendering [2] (the projected stereo environment runs within Internet Explorer). MatLab software is also used to drive certain virtual computations (i.e., those requiring the use of artificial neural networks).

Image 2 - Here the hi-res image

Concept

Robots are extensions of human activity. Just as we use our bodies to create and experience art, robotic bodies may be used as expressive and experiencing tools. Robots, like humans, are processes of interaction and learning that operate within the context of pre-existing systems. The robotic body is a purposeful medium, not an end in itself.

Robots are often sophisticated and expensive tools, and may be designed or appropriated for artistic use. When designed to satisfy specific objectives, the use of robotic technology requires a significant investment of resources before a working system is produced. For robotic art to have a serious cultural impact, it can utilize design processes that allow imagined or prototyped visions or fantasies of robotic expression to be realized according to a plan. Engineering strategy thus becomes an artistic process by which the expressive potential of the robot is defined.

To touch, feel, and empathize with our surroundings are central aspects of human experience that are widened through the use of robotic technology. This piece, The Ultimate Aesthetic Experience, is a high-impact immersive multimodal virtual environment that integrates diverse interface technologies including stereoscopic projection, spatialized audio, perceptual robotic feedback, tracking and real-time 3D graphics rendering. A sampling of available technology is included as image 1. My activities are focused on exploring the possible behaviors of and relations to this technological platform while maximizing its emotive potential. The specific configuration and behavior of elements of the system has been left intentionally ambiguous such that they may emerge through the process of designing and interacting with it. The system architecture includes numerous parallel computational frameworks that are reactive to interactions between the robot and human with the intent of creating a profound sense of magic and wonder.

Image 3 - Here the hi-res image

The mind of the robot is a virtual world. Fully immersive robotic minds allow humans to experience unlimited fantasy. Possibilities are boundless. I have therefore been employing design methodologies to inspire and guide the imaginative process. An overview of this process is included as image 2. This process has included a combination of ethnographic research, trend analysis, drawing, sculpting, computer programming and creative speculation.
The first phase of the project has been trend-finding research that has identified nine major opportunity areas representing a cross-section of “the technocultural condition.” [3] A summary of these findings is provided as image 3. Design theory demonstrates that compelling and powerful human experiences arise from merging aesthetics and technology with underlying human need. By emphasizing the creative skills of synthesis, pattern recognition, aesthetic awareness and artistic intervention, cultural trends, subtleties of human and robot behavior, pain-points, blocks, and opportunities may be identified. Once identified, this information can provide a valuable roadmap for the accomplishment of projected goals.

Based on opportunity areas drawn from this trend research, over 250 innovative perceptual robotic experience concepts have been brainstormed, prototyped, evaluated and refined. These concepts have been stored in a database, tagged, filtered, expanded, illustrated, and differentiated. They were then mapped onto the easy/hard low/high impact matrix shown in image 4. Selected details have been called out to give an idea of the information contained by each concept. The most promising concepts have been advanced through iterative cycles of ideation, scenario storyboarding, integration with other ideas, further brainstorming and software prototyping. A group of test users have been evaluating the system as it has evolved through an assortment of artistic contexts centered on the immersive technology described above. Iterative feedback from these sessions has been included in the design over time. The result is both a strategic map and evolving development platform for The Ultimate Aesthetic Experience.

Image 4 - Here the hi-res image

My work deals with the experience of reality, not specific instances, methods, media or tools. Robotic art inherently concerns itself with the perception and cognition of and by robots, the behavior of robots and humans in their presence, and the fantastic visions of both that result. Artists can become the parents of robots, manipulating technology in the creation of life, or collaborators with them as tools to help cognition emerge. In this project I have pragmatically avoided a premature definition of the robotic body and mind such that its behavior may emerge from the cultural, psychological, and physical constraints we experience through the sharing of artistic cognition.

A catalogue of selected earlier works has been included for reference [PDF, 1,3 MB]

Notes

1) See Cruz-Neira, C., Sandin, D.J., DeFanti, T.A., Kenyon, R.V., Hart, J.C., “The CAVE: audio visual experience automatic virtual environment,” Communications of the ACM, v.35 n.6, 1992, pp.64-72. [back]

2) See Carrozzino, M., Tecchia, F., Bacinelli, S., Cappelletti, C. and Bergamasco, M., “Lowering the development time of multimodal interactive application: the real-life experience of the XVR project,” Proc. ACE '05: 2005 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in computer entertainment technolog, 2005, pp. 270 - 273. [back]