Technics and Touch

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: Charles Anderson, in collaboration with Jondi Keane, produced the exhibition Technics & Touch: Body-Matter-Machine, which aimed to test the limits of human and robot proficiency. The exhibition consisted of two parallel events: a laboratory space where they were 'in-residence', producing drawings in conjunction with the robot; and a procedural drawing exhibition curated by Anderson, where the outcomes of this human/non-human team were exhibited alongside the work of practitioners who have been exploring rule-based drawing for some time. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: Through a series of experimental scenarios, the researchers explored methods of producing feedback systems through perception and action cycles. Working alongside a robot, the laboratory became a place for programmers, performers and the public to interact. Working deliberately within an interactive environment, it contributes to discourses and practices around embodied, expanded and autonomous intelligent systems specifically within collaborative architectural and design practices. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The project took place at the peer-reviewed venue Design Hub at RMIT University: a progressive educational environment that houses a community of architects, designers, curators and students for collaborative, inter-disciplinary design research and education. It presents exhibitions that visualise, perform and share research ideas. The project led to the publication of the journal article 'Human-non-human: the speculative robot' by Anderson and Keane, in Transformations (issue 29, pp. 70-87), published by Central Queensland University. It was also featured in an essay by Fleur Watson in Architect Victoria - the official journal of the Victorian chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects).