c:o/re Workshop: Interdisciplinary Research in Robotics and AI

Disabled Chair, 2014 - 2019, prototype #3, Samuel Bianchini with the collaboration of Didier Bouchon

"Invisible Man" Exhibition, curating by Murray Horne, Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh, April 2019. Photo: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP

An artwork developed and prototyped as part of the research project “Behavioral Objects” of the Reflective Interaction Group of EnsadLab 

(laboratory of The École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs - PSL University).

 Joffrey Becker and Käte Hamburger Kolleg Aachen: Cultures of Research (c:o/re) 

RWTH Aachen University

c:o/re Workshop: Interdisciplinary Research in Robotics and AI

One-day workshop April 20 2022

To take part online, please register with

events[at]khk.rwth-aachen.de

This workshop addresses interaction design by focusing on the notion of Behavioral Objects. Based on robotics and artificial intelligence, these non-anthropomorphic, non-zoomorphic objects are endowed with capacities for expressive movement, action and reactions and are also able to elicit observers’ behavioral interpretations (intentional and emotional attributions). They are therefore of interest to many fields of research like social sciences, humanities, robotics, computer sciences, art and design. The workshop will address the interdisciplinary framework opened by Behavioral Objects and the experimental perspective that brings together and combines these disciplines.

Program:

12:00-02:00pm 

The Apprentices: Objects with Interacting Behaviours

Samuel Bianchini 

(Reflective Interaction Research Group/EndsadLab, 

École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, PSL University), 

Elena Tosi Brandi 

(Xdlab/Art Directions Nods, Orange)

 

Hugo Scurto 

(Inserm-Sorbonne Université and ISIR, CNRS Sorbonne-Université 

and Reflective Interaction Research Group)

The Appprentices is a design research project led by multidisciplinary teams from Orange Innovation and EnsadLab (the laboratory of the École des Arts Décoratifs, Paris). Following an experimental approach that combines human sciences (notably anthropology and cognitive sciences), robotics and computer sciences (machine learning) with digital creation and innovation, this project explores new relational modalities between humans and our robotic environments enhanced by artificial intelligence techniques. If our everyday objects might be empowered with abilities of movement and learning, action and reaction, and a behavioral dimension, how can we design new relationships with these robotic artefacts but also between them? 

This lunch talk will describe The Appprentices, an instrumental “dispositif” to experiment with such “behavioral objects”, focusing on an original dimension that allows movement and sound to be strongly paired: vibration, vibratory space as a system of communication and interaction. Specifically, the talk will detail the participatory design process that enabled practitioners and researchers from diverse disciplines to collaborate in the prototyping of the dispositif, in an attempt to entangle technical components of these robotic objects with concepts of agency, animacy, learning, and vibration.

05:00 – 07:00pm

Behavioral Objects, Agonistic Objects 

How and why to design art robotic objects fighting against and for their being conditions?

Samuel Bianchini 

(Reflective Interaction Research Group/EndsadLab, 

École nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs, PSL University)

Created in an artistic context that also belongs to the wider field of robotics, “behavioral objects” are defined by their capacity to express a “personality” thanks to the quality of their movements and their actions and reactions, which are, in this case, regarded as “behaviors.” Non-figurative, these art objects have no need of being useful - their activity does not have a specific function or usage - and they have built-in energy sources that are, generally, not visible, making it impossible to attribute to a third party the energy directly required to make them move, the physical cause of their activity. 

If their expressive capacities can be provided through the ability to move and interact dynamically with the environment, what kind of interaction could we design to stimulate the attribution of behaviors and even personality? How to build an emotional and reflective relation with this robotics object through an aesthetic dimension in operation? 

Based on the presentation of several art projects developed in the framework of our Behavioral Objects research and creation project, we propose to consider the design of this objects through an agonistic approach. Even in operation, these objects are still in construction: in a kind of new homeostatic perspective, they are always seeking for their balance. They need to fight for that, against and for their being conditions. Exhibited such objects it is to exhibit this fight. It requires now to configure relations of forces, internal as with the environment. This new kind of settings as to consider aesthetic, symbolic and technical dimensions gathered in real-time operation. It raises the possibility of an agonistic design, a way to set conditions for a sensitive and reflective experience for objects and humans.

Workshop - Explainable AI and explanations in AI

Organized by Markus Pantsar & Frederik Stjernfelt

February 2nd, 2022

RWTH Aachen University, Theaterplatz 14, room 303 and online

One important challenge in machine learning is the “black box” problem, in which an artificial intelligence reaches a result without any humans being able to explain why. This problem is typically present in deep artificial neural networks, in which the hidden layers are impenetrable. To tackle this problem, researchers have introduced the no- tion of explainable AI (XAI), artificial intelligence the results of which can be understood by humans. The XAI position is usually characterised in terms of three properties: transparency, interpretability, and explainability. While the first two have standard def- initions, explainability is not understood in a uniform manner. What does explainability mean? What kind of AI is explainable? Can there be properly explainable machine learning systems? In this workshop, we discuss a variety of approaches to these topics in connection to fundamental questions in artificial intelligence. What are explanations in AI? What do AI systems explain and how? How does AI explanation relate to the topics of human understanding and intelligence?

Confirmed speakers are: Jobst Landgrebe (Cognotekt Köln), Markus Pantsar (University of Helsinki, c:o/re), Frederik Stjernfelt (Aalborg University Copenhagen, c:o/re), Gabriele Gramelsberger (c:o/re Aachen), Ana L. C. Bazzan (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, c:o/re Aachen), Joffrey Becker (Laboratoire d‘Anthropologie Sociale, c:o/re Aachen), Daniel Wenz (CSS Lab RWTH Aachen), and Andreas Kaminski (High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart).

Information and Program: https://khk.rwth-aachen.de/2022/01/27/2281/explainable-ai-explanations-in-ai/

3e Grand rendez-vous annuel de la vie robomobile

3e Grand rendez-vous annuel de la vie robomobile 

Third annual grand Rendezvous of the robomobile life future workshop

19-20 mai 2021

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Cette décennie 2021-2030 pourrait voir le déploiement des premiers services de transport par des véhicules automatisés. Ce démarrage sera progressif, ciblé, encadré. Il sera porté par des cas d'usages concrets répondant à des besoins de mobilité peu ou insuffisamment couverts par l'offre existante.

Ces premières étapes de mise en service en conditions réelles de l'automatisation des transports seront déterminantes. Dans quelle mesure une ville peut-elle choisir le modèle robomobile qui lui va le mieux ? Ce troisième Grand rendez-vous annuel de l'Atelier prospectif aborde la question de la marge de manoeuvre et de l'influence des villes et des territoires sur l'émergence et les évolutions futures de la vie robomobile. Comment les acteurs d'un territoire peuvent-ils mettre en débat les différents modèles sociotechniques associés à l'automatisation ? Quelles sont les conditions à réunir pour fixer les règles du jeu ?

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This decade 2021-2030 could see the deployment of the first transport services provided by automated vehicles. This implementation will be gradual, targeted and regulated. It will be driven by genuine use cases that meet mobility needs that are poorly or insufficiently covered by the existing offer. 

These first stages of putting transport automation into service in real conditions will be decisive. To what extent can a city choose the robomobile model that suits it best? This third annual Grand Rendezvous of the Atelier prospectif examines the question of the room for manoeuvre and the influence of cities and territories on the emergence and future evolution of robomobile life. How can the actors of a territory debate the different socio-technical models associated with automation? What are the conditions to set the rules of the game? Express your interest and receive the detailed programme and updates. Please forward this message to your contacts in the territories who might be interested.

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Inscriptions : https://hopin.com/events/3e-grand-rendez-vous-annuel-de-la-vie-robomobile