Blast Theory

“Artist-led research enables us to create technologies with artists and take them out of the lab, so that people can explore these leading-edge technologies in a public setting. This enables researchers to gain a range of perspectives and ways that people think about and experience technologies, such as AI and Robotics. In our research we are looking at what it might look and feel like to engage with ‘intelligent’ (AI-based) objects and machines, such as robots – some people call this embodied AI – where AI is made physical. We’re interested in how we might embody AI in more creative ways.” Dr Alan Chamberlain (project lead) and Prof Steve Benford (Turing Fellow).

To further explore embodied AI – in particular the feedback loop between AI and humans – we are collaborating with partners Blast Theory, one of the world’s leading artist groups working with digital media, to create Facial Rover, a new installation asking what it means to be human in the age of AI. The work combines soft and hard robotics and aims to fascinate audiences, prompt dialogue and produce world-leading research.

Matt Adams [Blast Theory], Lead artist on Facial Rover:

“Our sense of self is shifting beneath our feet: what happens to us when we can talk to machines as if they are teachers, friends or lovers? What are the implications when we can touch those machines and they can touch us?

In Facial Rover, you take a seat on a luxurious lounger. In your hand is a warm, fleshy controller for a camera that is pointing at you. As you rove the camera, a large screen shows your face in microscopic detail: each hair, every pore, each rivulet in the iris.

In this world of sensory abundance, a soft inflatable robot breathes around your neck while the system talks you through the process in a tone of voice that is friendly, helpful and reassuring. The AI at the heart of the system has different ideas. It wants to put you at ease while it collects data.

The work is transcendent and hypnotic. The robots and the AI are inside your personal space. You are both subject and object. The work creates an uncanny, recursive process in which your gaze is turned back on yourself.

What does it feel like to experience AI with your body?”