The VIDA Gallery

Alexitimia, VIDA 9.0, First Prize

Paula Gaetano, Alexitimia, latex, sensors, custom electronics, water, metal base, 2006.

© Paula Gaetano. Photo © Fundación Telefónica Argentina

When viewers touch Alexitimia, its surface exudes drops of water as if it were sweating. Other than purely corporeal language, all communicative exchange between robot and environment has been eliminated.

Dog [LAB]01, VIDA 6.0, Shared First Prize

France Cadet, Dog [LAB]01, robotic installation, 2004. Project web page: <www.doglab.net>.

© France Cadet Project

In Dog [LAB]01, the artist has performed surgery on several robotic dogs, customized their forms and reprogrammed them with unusual behaviors. Her new dogs are genetically manipulated animal combinations that address weighty issues of science and society with intelligent irony.

Dripping Sounds, VIDA 7.0, Shared Third Prize

Federico Muelas, Dripping Sounds, installation, 2002.

© Federico Muelas. Photo © Maria Postigo

Dripping Sounds is a visual and sound installation that projects ink drops ethereally dissolving in water. Twenty photosensitive sensors convert the flowing movement of the projected images into electroacoustic sounds.

Electric Sheep, VIDA 4.0, Shared First Prize

Scott Draves, Electric Sheep, custom software, open source release 1999. Project web page: <http://electricsheep.org>.

© Scott Draves

Named after Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Electric Sheep is a screensaver that aims to realize the collective dream of sleeping computers. Via the Internet, users contribute the computational power of their local computer when in its idle mode to generate animations of so-called "sheep," graphic entities rendered using the artist's fractal flame software.

Liveform: Telekinetics (LF:TK), VIDA 8.0, Second Prize

Michelle Teran and Jeff Mann, LiveForm: Telekinetics (LF:TK), networked performance, 2004. Project web page: <www.lftk.org>.

© Michelle Teran and Jeff Mann

Domestic utensils have been technologically hacked to become communication tools that facilitate new networked experiences. LiveForm: Telekinetics (LF:TK) questions the values of productivity and functionality built into computers and encourages us to play with alternate communication technologies that better encompass the complexities of human social experience.

Remain in Light, VIDA 4.0, Shared First Prize

Haruki Nishijima, Remain in Light, 1999.

© Haruki Nishijima

While walking through the city, the user captures fragments of sounds from media such as cellular phones or radio using a butterfly net that doubles as an antenna. In the installation site, the recorded sounds are downloaded to a computer that coordinates a visual display of firefly-like lights projected on insect-screening material. The installation binds an urban soundscape with an imaginary ecology.

Tickle, VIDA 2.0, Shared First Prize

María Verstappen and Erwin Driessens, Tickle, robotics, 1997. Project web page: <www.xs4all.nl/~notnot/tickle/TICKLEcat.html>.

© María Verstappen and Erwin Driessens. Photo © Erwin Driessens.

Tickle is an autonomous robot that navigates the surface of the body on its rotating rubber-padded wheels, tickling as it goes.

Universal Whistling Machine, VIDA 7.0, Shared First Prize

Marc Böhlen and J.T. Rinker, Universal Whistling Machine, mixed media and software, 2004-2006. Shared Project web page: <www.realtechsupport.org/new_works/uwm.html>.

© Marc Böhlen

The Universal Whistling Machine is a tone-based interpreter of whistles. Using advanced signal-processing computation, the system can extract whistles from other sounds and can exchange passages with humans, other whistling machines and even animals.