Kirsty Boyle

DATE:      June 16th 2010 1-2 PM
PLACE:     Interface Culture Lab, Kollegiumgasse 2, 4. OG
Lecturer:   Kirsty Boyle
Title:         "The Robot Culture”

Lecturer: Kirsty Boyle, artist mainly working with robots, researcher, the student of Karakuri Ningyo craftsman, the last remaining mechanical doll master in Japan

The Robot Culture lecture will provide an introduction to the world of Karakuri from ancient Japan to Sony robots.  Japan’s love of robots lies in the history of the ‘Karakuri Ningyo’.  'Karakuri' = a mechanical device to tease, trick, or take a person by surprise. It implies hidden magic, or an element of mystery.  The Karakuri tradition directly contributed to the industrial modernisation of Japan, and today continues to manifest itself in popular culture in various ways.

Artist Kirsty Boyle will be discussing robot culture and some of her most recent projects - 'tree ceremony', touring with the Robot Dreams exhibition @ Museum Tinguely, Switzerland (in conjunction with Art Basel) and the Kunsthaus Graz, Austria; and the love the robots show, a hybrid showcase combining media art, network performance, informal lecture and discussion centered around the theme of robots,contemporary art, culture and society.

Biography:
Kirsty Boyle is an Australian artist whose passion for robots has driven her to travel the world in order to work with other like-minded artists, puppeteers, animators and scientists. Kirsty’s work examines robots as subjects of culture with particular emphasis on how we experience and personalise our interactions with them.

During 2002, Kirsty began study under Mr Shobei Tamaya, a ninth generation Karakuri Ningyo craftsman and last remaining mechanical doll master in Japan. She is currently his only student, and is now considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Karakuri tradition.

Her practice is truly interdisciplinary, encompassing skills in sculpture, theatrical performance, film and animation, digital arts and interaction design, mechanical and electrical engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence. She has presented her work via various mediums, primarily via exhibition, but also television, radio and magazine interviews, to delivering lectures and hosting forums and workshops at educational institutions and festivals internationally.

She is co-founder of http://openMaterials.org, and was recently an Artist in Residence/Guest Researcher at the AI Lab, University of Zurich.