Dragan Ilic

"IRMMPI - Z5" INTERACTIVE ROBOTIC MIXED-MEDIA
PERFORMANCE INSTALLATION
DRAGAN ILIC
THE RESЮENCY PROGRAM
COLLEGE OF SINE ARTS
Institute for Studies in the Arts
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
TEMPE, ARIZONA

Description:

A one-armed robot will be constructed so as to allow the mist to communicate with and control its movement, both through a sight and voice recognition system.

The artist will be suspended face down by its nine-foot arm, that will carry him across and around the forty-foot plywood platform (40 feet long x 8 feet wide x 3 inches high), on which the paper is laid (see drawing ) and upon which the artist, supported by the robot, will draw and paint, using his robotic devices (see drawing). A video
camera, mounted on the artist's head, will record the activity from his perspective.

The robot will also be equipped with a video camera that will record the activity from its perspective.

A third camera will take lob shots, documenting the performance.

All images fed from the three cameras will be mixed and special effects processed, then projected, onto six foot diameter, white rubber spheres that will further alter and distort the original individual images.

Simultaneously, a webcam recorder will capture the event for the Internet, running between real performance and projected images on the spheres.

The audience is invited to try their hand in creating their own performance (drawing, sound, painting).

" IRMMPI-ZS " Dragan Ilic
Interactive Robotic Mixed Media Performance/Installation
Proposal for Residency at The College of Fine Arts, Arizona State University

PROPOSED BUDGET for "IRMMPI-Z5" by DRAGAN ILIC
Performance Time: 60 Minutes each day.
Because this is an interactive performance, the audience will be encouraged to participate. The performance could be repeated each day, for 3 days.
After the performance, the finished artwork will remain on view for the rest of the day.
I hope the following items will be provided by The College of Fine Arts, Arizona State University:

1. Custom made voice recognition robot

2. Four digital video cameras

3. Two video projectors

4. Live webcast

5. 150 Drawing-Painting devices
(fitted with 10(Ю pencils, 400 crayons-charcoal, 300 brushes, 2000 graphite)

6. Wooden platform made of half inch plywood, one side smooth. The size of the platform will be 30ft. to 40ft. length, 7ft. wide and 3in, high.

7. Ten white rubber spheres бft. in diameter (Availability information can be provided)

8. Half а gallon of blue, green, yellow, brown, black, white and silver acrylic paint 9. Half а gallon of blue, green, yellow, brown, black and white ink

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ICitAB

I am an artist working on experiments in the relation of art with technology, exploring the ways different bodily engagement with technologies can be used for upgrading the level of art production. My first concern in work was the conceptual analysis of the process of drawing as an expressive form in visual arts, as mediated by technologies of inscribing bodily actions onto the surface of the paper. My works have thematized the process of creation of a drawing, materials used in that process and the technological devices that mediate in it. Whatever is being usually activated in the process of producing a drawing I was introducing this way into the realm of the art (pens, brushes, tubes and pencils) and was enhancing them with different prosthetic devices, which had for purpose to intercede their utilization, and activate them within the frame of an interactive, technologically mediated performance. I was then constructing robots that were carrying out the physical part of the drawing process, equipped with different drawing tools and directed by remote control. Now I believe I have to take some steps further in this direction, and therefore I have indulged myself into a research of recent technological discoveries which I could probably use for my future artistic projects, and that way came across your work.

I have red of your discovery of chip implants into the human brain, which records the process of thinking (ideas) and transmits wirelessly into a robot, and got inspired to think of participating in your program as an artist, so that I could really become conceptually involved with high end technology and process of making art. I would like to eliminate my body as a production tool, but I would like to explore only mind with the machines. To achieve that your discovery seems to me suitable, so that I would like to ask you to be the first artist to get this kind of technology and use for the production of an artwork. I would like to talk to you about this, if it is possible, about getting involved with your discovery as an experiment mind, my brain + (chip) + robot = artwork. This kind of experimentation is almost extreme, but the result can be that I could, by using this device, I could use mind without my body and the potentiality of the mind could be explored much more. If we make a successful cooperation on this project, I am see we will come up with a work of art that will present a completely new paradigm in this field.

I strongly believe that our discussions on this topic could be very fruitful, and therefore I would like to ask to arrange an appointment whenever it is at your convenience. In order to provide you with a clearer image about my previous work, I am sending you some of the examples of the installations and performances I did in the last years. I truly hope that you will find interest in them and send me some feedback, with a suggestion of the date and time when we could meet and discuss this further.

Dragan Ilic

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Dragan Ilic & Post-Human Governance
Who or what can best meet the governance challenge?

For many years now I have been excited at the prospects for the human transformation into the post-human species. A post-human world is defined by the absence of uncertainty: a highly predicted logic abounds. Some unpredicted things arise, of course, but at this juncture robots are so advanced they will have intuitive means to meet these challenges.

Robots and computers will eventually play important roles in governance. They will probably be indispensable tools to foster rationality and do away with, for example, corruption. When a people elects a representative, what does the representative do? They are charged with representing the people's interests. These representatives get information from the local constituents and then make decisions. I find decision making most interesting. Imagine the possibilities when computers are deciding the feasibility of projects and how best to meet the needs of constituents. Think of a state as a big pie and a computer with full knowledge of the pie's resources decides how best to 1. allocate resources and 2. maximize utility. Who or what can best meet the governance challenge?