Vive Les Robots

19/10/2024

Opening remark by Zaven Paré during the exhibition opening 30 September 2024 at the American Center in Prague of "Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of R.U.R. by Karel Čapek 104 years ago"
01.10.2024 - 22.11.2024.

Abstract: “From R.U.R. to G.U.N.T.E.R” (from “Rossum Universal Robot” to “General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Robot”)
“Making a man during ten years is insane. If you don’t do it faster than nature, it’s not worth wasting your time on it,” says Harry Domin, CEO of R.U.R. companies. From inventions to acronyms or abbreviated names, robotics is indebted to fiction and theater. We owe it the word “robot” introduced in the theater drama Rossum’s Universal Robots by Karel Čapek, which thus names biochemical artificial creatures. Today’s robots are not yet those almost perfect copies that, once placed in interaction contexts, can express themselves with social skills, but rather they are electromechanical artifacts. In Čapek’s drama, robotics is represented as a branch of synthetic biology that, on the one hand, is capable of creating test subjects, characters; and on the other hand, who intends to impose on them the status of objects – “animated instruments”.

In the aftermath of the First World War, R.U.R. exposes the expansionist and destructive nature of capitalism pushing technoscientific evolution to the limits of its naturalization. According to Čapek, his contemporaries being unsuited to technology and modern warfare from which they emerged as survivors of themselves, Rossum has the project of replacing the human machine with machine efficiency. His arguments are economic: productivity, repetitiveness and the demand for precision required by industrial work.

It is only much later that the expectations of social capacities of such machines will be illustrated in G.U.N.T.E.R., the robot from the television series Lost in Space by Irwin Allen in 1965. Named “G.U.N.T.E.R.” for General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Robot, its acronym defined what we now call “social robots”: G.U. refers to the notion of a universal butler and N.T.E.R. poses the axiom of a machine capable of making decisions according to Asimov’s three laws of robotics. This idealization of future robots was imagined deprived of the ability to theorize and with limited consciousness.

Video:
https://youtu.be/TmRSvdHQNZs

Thanks to U.S. Embassy Prague for kind support in the realization of this exhibition.
https://www.americkecentrum.cz/en/udalost/zaren-pare-presents-robots/

For further information, contact: [email protected]
https://norticum.com/zaven-pare-from-r-u-r-to-g-u-n-t-e-r/

Opening remark by Zaven Paré during the exhibition opening 30 September 2024 at the American Center in Prague of "Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of R.U...

18/10/2024

Opening remark by Matej Hoffmann during the exhibition opening 30 September 2024 at the American Center in Prague of "Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of R.U.R. by Karel Čapek 104 years ago"

Abstract: “100 years later: Rossum’s robots still teach us how to make self-aware machines”
When reading Karel Čapek’s R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) today, one is astonished how full of contemporary or even visionary ideas the text is —100 years after its conception. These include the societal implications such as robots taking away jobs, the issue of robot rights, the dangers of automatic killer machines, or robots taking over the world.

In this short talk, I will concentrate on a different aspect, which is no less contemporary: Rossum’s Robots are still ahead of the capabilities of today’s machines and I think that this is grounded in an ingenious scientific understanding of the problem that Čapek intuitively came up with. In short, I will claim that the second generation of Rossum’s robots has achieved the transformation from soulless robots to self-aware machines by a form of enaction: through the addition of pain and irritability, the robots started to care about their bodies and eventually “themselves”, enacting a world of their own.

Thanks to U.S. Embassy Prague for kind support in the realization of this exhibition.
https://www.americkecentrum.cz/en/udalost/zaren-pare-presents-robots/

For further information:
https://norticum.com/matej-hoffmann-100-years-later/
https://youtu.be/wAqeCq-d4KI?si=yJQnYT2L3Pv8jJcq

Opening remark by Matej Hoffmann during the exhibition opening 30 September 2024 at the American Center in Prague of "Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of...

17/10/2024

Opening remark by Jana Horáková during the exhibition opening 30 September 2024 at the American Center in Prague of "Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of R.U.R. by Karel Čapek 104 years ago".

Abstract: Playing Robots in America
The talk will address “Americanism” of Karel Čapek play R.U.R. (1920/2021). This characteristic was used by Czech theatre critiques to describe Čapek’s ability to write an adventurous sci-fi play, which resonated strongly in the American cultural context. The R.U.R.’s success in US even contributed to the play’s world fame and turned Čapek (recognized Czech avant-garde artist) into a world-known sci-fi writer. The plot of the play elaborating on Humans–Robots relationship became central motive of the sci-fi since then. The R.U.R.’s influence on sci-fi genre will be illustrated particularly by addressing work of Isaac Asimov (example of technical definition of Robots) and William Gibson’s Neuromancer (representing Robots as products of bioengineering). The aim of the talk is to illustrate viability and universality of the Čapek’s play about Robots.

Thanks to U.S. Embassy Prague for kind support in the realization of this exhibition.

https://www.americkecentrum.cz/udalost/zaven-pare-predstavuje-roboty/

For further information:
https://norticum.com/jana-horakova-playing-robots-in-america/
https://youtu.be/UsA9ZBbde4A?si=en7YqNNS2PDZ8QPG

Opening remark by Jana Horáková during the exhibition opening 30 September 2024 at the American Center in Prague of "Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of ...

02/10/2024

Images from the the exhibition opening of Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of R.U.R. by Karel Čapek 104 years ago, September 30, 2024, 17:00 -18:15 at the American Center, Tržiště 13, Prague 1.

Opening remarks:
- Doc. Jana Horáková, Masaryk University: Playing Robots in America
- Zaven Paré, Artist and Roboticist: From R.U.R. to G.U.N.T.E.R. (from “Rossum Universal Robot” to “General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Robot”)
- Doc. Matěj Hoffmann, CTU: Rossum’s robots still teach us how to make self-aware machines

You can visit the exhibition through November 22, 2024 upon prior appointment or during public programs.

Thanks to the US Embassy Prague for accepting the proposal to exhibit the works of the French artist Zaven Pare after many good conversations. As well as providing good secure premises and staff and facilities in a historic building in Prague so that it was possible to present the vernissage, which also had contributions from good Czech experts within R.U.R. and robotics.

Thanks to the speakers Jana Horáková and Matej Hoffmann who had spent time and effort to contribute to a wider understanding of the connection between the USA, R.U.R. and today's robots.

And finally, but not least, thanks to Zaven Pare for choosing that he would be present in Prague, so he could be able to personally present some examples from his work with electronic puppets and collaboration with the Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro.

For further information
https://norticum.com/zaven-pare-from-r-u-r-to-g-u-n-t-e-r/

30/09/2024

Tonight, in Prague:
U.S. Embassy invites you to the exhibition opening:

Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of R.U.R. by Karel Čapek 104 years ago

September 30, 2024, 17:00 -19:30, American Center, Tržiště 15, Prague 1

Opening remarks:
- Christian Gjørret, Robot Event Organizer, NORTICUM: The R.U.R-Play and U.S.
- Doc. Jana Horáková, Masaryk University: Playing Robots in America
- Zaven Paré, Artist and Roboticist: From R.U.R. to G.U.N.T.E.R. (from “Rossum Universal Robot” to “General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Robot”)
- Doc. Matěj Hoffmann, CTU: Rossum’s robots still teach us how to make self-aware machines

https://norticum.com/zaven-pare-from-r-u-r-to-g-u-n-t-e-r/

The program will be held in English.

You can visit the exhibition through November 22, 2024 upon prior appointment or during public programs.

24/09/2024

Opening of new exhibition at The American Center Prague: Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of R.U.R. by Karel Čapek 104 years ago.

Come and listening to the talk "100 years later: Rossum’s robots still teach us how to make self-aware machines" presented by Matej Hoffmann on the 30th of September 2024 from 5 PM local time.

Bio: Matej Hoffmann received his MSc degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence from Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2006. Between 2006 and 2013 he completed the PhD degree and then served as Senior Research Associate at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Zurich, Switzerland (Prof. Rolf Pfeifer). In 2013 he joined the iCub Facility of the Italian Institute of Technology (Prof. Giorgio Metta), supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (iCub Body Schema, 2014-2016). In 2017, he joined the Department of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague where he is currently serving as Associate Professor and leading a group focused on cognitive, neuro-, collaborative, and humanoid robotics.

https://lnkd.in/du8632FZ

Entrance is free, but it is necessary to sign up here:
https://lnkd.in/dMy_kn_N

24/09/2024

Opening of new exhibition at The American Center Prague: Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of R.U.R. by Karel Čapek 104 years ago

Come and listening to the talk "Playing Robots in America." presented by Jana Horáková on the 30th of September 2024 from 5 PM local time.

Bio: Jana Horáková is associate professor of media art at Masaryk University, Brno. She graduated from the Dance Conservatory in Brno (1990). For five years, she was a member of the ballet ensemble of the National Theatre in Prague. Afterwards, she pursued Theatre Studies at Charles University in Prague and then at Masaryk University in Brno (MA). She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Theatre and Interactive Media at Masaryk University. Since 2004 she teaches the Theory of Interactive Media there.
She has published on robotic art, cultural history of the robot and on software theory. She is also an editor of the Czech-language open-access electronic journal TIM. She lives in Brno.

https://norticum.com/jana-horakova-playing-robots-in-america/

Entrance is free, but it is necessary to sign up here:
https://www.americkecentrum.cz/en/udalost/zaven-pare-robots-prints-in-honor-of-r-u-r-by-karel-capek-104-years-ago/

22/09/2024

Opening of new exhibition at The American Center Prague: Zaven Paré: Robots – Prints in honor of R.U.R. by Karel Čapek 104 years ago

Come and listening to the talk "From R.U.R. to G.U.N.T.E.R." presented by Zaven Pare on the 30th of September 2024 from 5 PM local time.

Bio: Zaven Paré is an artist and researcher, notably as a Robot Drama Researcher. Pioneer in electronic arts, he invented the first electronic puppets (works in various collections in the United States, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Russia). His devices were used during his 1999 staging of Novarina at CalArts. Ten years later, he became a collaborator of Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro at the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory (Osaka University). Paré was a laureate of the French American Fund for Performing Arts, Villa Kujoyama, the Japan Society for Promotion of Science, the Prêmio Sérgio Motta em Arte e Tecnologia in Brazil and the guest of honor of the Moscow Puppet Festival in 2019. He is the author of L’âge d’or de la Robotique Japonaise (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2016), and of the book Le spectacle anthropomorphique (Dijon: Les Presses du Réel, 2021 ).

https://norticum.com/zaven-pare-from-r-u-r-to-g-u-n-t-e-r/

Entrance is free, but it is necessary to sign up here:
https://www.americkecentrum.cz/en/udalost/zaven-pare-robots-prints-in-honor-of-r-u-r-by-karel-capek-104-years-ago/