MAHINDRA TRANSMEDIA ARTS SEMINAR: Jenn Parker-Starbuck, Animals in the Machine: Robotic Animal Agents

Jenn Parker-Starbuck, Royal Holloway, University of London. April 15, 5pm EST. Animals in the Machine: Robotic Animal Agents Register: brk.mn/animal-agents

Building on the work around cyborgs and the non-human “others,” this talk illustrates the development of several types of robotic animals and insects, from animal drones and animal “spys,” to artistic robotic/cyborgean animal installations. My aim is to begin to discern in which cases a possible animal “agency” might provoke a rethinking of the human-technological-animal relationship. Looking specifically at work such as Korean/US artist Doo Sung Yoo’s animal-machine hybrids, biomimetic “mixed societies” of robotic and live cockroaches, and animal drones and automata, this talk examines questions of relationality, and possibilities for how mechanized animals, controlled by humans and, at times, at their least “animal,” might produce a disturbance that provokes possibility as a dissenting agent.

metaLAB is partnering with the Mahindra Humanities Center to sponsor the Transmedia Arts Seminar, chaired by Magda Romanska and Hana Worthen.