Welcome to a K3 seminar with David Kadish, artist and research assistant at the Egocentric Interaction Research Group at Malmö University:
The title of the talk is: Endemic Machines. Robots as Ecosystem Agents
The seminar will take place at 10.15-12.00 on November 10. It will be a Zoom meeting: https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/61860118757.
More info on David and his talk below:
Bio/Self-Presentation
I am an artist and research assistant at the Egocentric Interaction Research Group at Malmö University. I recently completed my PhD at the IT University of Copenhagen with a thesis titled Endemic Machines: Acoustic Adaptation and Evolutionary Agents. My artwork and academic research engage with feedback, complexity, and the emergence of patterns and relationships, particularly as these topics relate to the intersection of machines and biological ecosystems. The work in this seminar relates to a paper that is in progress and some ideas for future research, so I am looking forward to critical feedback and discussion about the work!
Abstract
Endemic Machines is a research project that explores the conceptualization and design of machines that form a relationship with an ecosystem by evolving within and alongside that ecosystem. The first prototype of such a machine was the Rowdy Krause, an evolutionary acoustic agent that is designed to find its own vocalization that fits and contributes to an existing soundscape. This main portion of this talk examines the concept of endemic machines through the Rowdy Krause, and draws on research in soundscape ecology, artificial life, and artificial intelligence, to build an interdisciplinary view of machine engagement with an existing soundscape.
A second portion of the seminar turns to a proposal for future work on endemic machines. Here, the sonic is substituted for the chemical senses associated with smell as a machine explores the olfactory landscape of an ecosystem. This shift enables a corresponding move away from sonifying animals and towards a broader spectrum of biological life that includes plants, fungi, and animals that sense and produce olfactory and pheromonal signals.