Details
Free, no booking required
Southbank The Hub, University of Melbourne, Southbank Campus, Melbourne
The Hub (Building 863), Southbank VIC, Australia
Dates
Thu 14 May 10am – 5pm
Fri 15 May 10am – 5pm
Mon 18 May 10am – 5pm
Tue 19 May 10am – 5pm
Wed 20 May 10am – 5pm
Thu 21 May 10am – 5pm
Fri 22 May 10am – 5pm
A Jagged Orbit (2023, ongoing) explores the computational equivalent of human activities such as daydreaming, mind wandering and distraction. In this installation, an automated art system (a custom-designed drawing machine) calculates the orbital paths of celestial bodies and draws them onto the covers of glossy fashion magazines with a marker.
At times, however, the system becomes ‘distracted’. Using computer vision, it can recognise objects, faces, colours, patterns or text within the underlying image and respond by adding marks that resemble spontaneous doodles.
While in this ‘daydream’ state, the machine can also react to sounds or speech from nearby people. These interactions may ‘startle’ the system, prompting it to return to its primary task of calculating and drawing celestial orbits.
Through this process, the drawing continuously evolves as calculated paths intersect with moments of distraction and improvisation. The work also invites broader questions: What opportunities lie beyond existing approaches to working with and through so-called ‘intelligent’ machines? What new slippages could these ‘distracted’ processes afford?