Hommage to Luigi Pagliarini

In the realm of the XXV Oscar Signorini Prize projects' exhibition there was also an hommage to Luigi Pagliarini, one of the most prominent Italian artist working in robotics.

Fatherboard, The Superavatar
The Genesis
by
the Superavatars Group

the Superavatrs Group is: Luigi Pagliarini, Demian Battisti, Andrea
Gabriele, Marzia Di Giulio, Mauro Carulli, Antonio Fasolo, Riccardo
Mazzucco, Andrea Spina, Maurizio Piazza and DJ Brhams

Fatherboard, The Superavatar is a concept by Luigi Pagliarini

Fatherboard, the SuperAvatar is an avatar that - escaping from the virtual worlds (or the computer, generally speaking) - forms into a physical shape. It is similar to cyborgs - but is not a cyborg - and it is made out of the (recycled) hardware components of the computer where it came from. Fatherboard steps in to the "real world" and starts interrelating with the human beings (the audience). The essence of its dialog with humans is to be found in the idea of a confrontation between the "artificial" intelligences and the ones of their creators. The whole show is theoretically based on the concepts expressed in the Polymorphyc Intelligence and the Big Sieve theories, by Luigi Pagliarini.

The ß Version of the mask (i.e.: orange color) is composed by a steel helmet, a cotton suite, gloves, shoes and a cloak on which hardware components of recycled computers have been installed. Technically speaking, the whole set up can be called a "Wearable Modular Robot" (Luigi Pagliarini, 2008) or SuperAvatar.

Indeed, for the ß version mask some of the above mentioned components were integrated with an electronic circuit (in alternative, a pre-existing one was used) such as to locally react to the dynamics impressed to the actor's body through the use of one or more sensors.

“FatherBoard, The SuperAvatar” has been built by Luigi Pagliarini and Demian Battisti.
The Superavatrs Group is a network of artists cooperating to the development of the performances
and related art, including: Luigi Pagliarini, Demian Battisti, Andrea Gabriele, Marzia Di Giulio,
Mauro Carulli, Antonio Fasolo, Riccardo Mazzucco, Andrea Spina, Maurizio Piazza and DJ
Brhams.

In this video the FatherBoard ß Version realized in between September 2007 and July 2008.

http://www.artificialia.com/Fatherboard

http://www.youtube.com/luigipagliarini

The SuperAvatars [PDF, 652 KB] (in Italian)