{"id":918,"date":"2022-03-16T10:32:43","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T08:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metamorf.no\/2024\/?p=918"},"modified":"2024-03-28T22:24:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T20:24:51","slug":"spela-petric-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metamorf.no\/2024\/spela-petric-2\/","title":{"rendered":"PL\u2019AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u0160pela Petri\u010d<\/span><\/h3>\n

Meta.Morf 2024 \u2013 [up]Loaded Bodies \/ Tr\u00f8ndelag Senter for Samtidskunst<\/a> \/ April 17 \u2013 June 9 \/<\/span>
\nCurators: Zane Cerpina, Boris Debackere, Espen Gangvik, Florian Weigl.<\/span><\/p>\n

PL\u2019AI \u00a0(2020)<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

\u201cPL\u2019AI\u201d is an AI robot created to play with cucumber plants. Recognizing that crops are surveilled and controlled by algorithms as much as people, the project examines the potential of using machine learning, artificial intelligence, and robotics to relate to plants in a non-extractive manner; to resist the reductive view of plants as a living resource and use technology towards their joy\u2014whatever it may be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u0160pela Petri\u010d sets out to question whether AI and machine learning tools, their high-tech sensorium, and bespoke effectors are, in fact, inescapably tied to utility and efficiency. Can we make an AI-powered robot whose purpose is to play with plants? And how do plants play anyway?<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast to a game with set rules, play evades clear definitions\u2014play is relational, its bounds malleable, and its intensity in flux. It is through play that living beings learn about what their bodies can do, exploring with curiosity the freedom of agency prior to confronting existential challenges. And yet, what constitutes play also lies in the eyes of the beholder. Because it is so loosely defined and because the pleasure it brings to the entity playing is a first-person experience, it barely passes scientific scrutiny. Within the scientific episteme, ascribing vegetables with the potential of play would likely be considered an anthropomorphization that should be avoided. Since AI genealogically stems from technoscience based on objective knowledge, an AI robot built by people explicitly for the joy of beings as ontologically unrelated as plants are to humans poses a paradox. To add to the conundrum, Petri\u010d considers the AI robot as a human prosthesis that augments some of the perceptual shortcomings of the human body that make it difficult to play with plants. The robot can both kinetically and cognitively enter plant time in a way we cannot.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the expertise of people from the fields of computer and cognitive science, biology, engineering, design, art, and philosophy, the project attempts to make a morphologically and computationally plant-centered robot. The robot holds a planter with soil, above which 36 colorful bouncy balls are suspended from individually controlled wires. These are the effectors which the robot unwinds slowly to approach and play with the plants. Once the cucumbers start growing mature leaves, thin tendrils develop opposite each one. The tendrils are very motile, exploring their environment in a swaying motion, sensing touch, light, and perhaps even scents. If they come across a suitable object or surface (in this case, the robot\u2019s wire) they wrap around it tightly and pull on it with a helical coiling mechanism.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the visitor might not see play unfolding with their own eyes, they can catch a glimpse of it on the computer screen, which continuously replays the last 24 hours of interaction as a time-lapse video and reports on the latest steps taken by the AI robot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the cucumbers grow and envelop the robot, both become imprinted by the choices the other made in the process. Play as a moment in time seamlessly transitions into utility, the robot AI transforming into a trellis that allows the cucumber plants to stretch, flower, and fruit, eventually producing delicious cucumbers to be consumed by vegetable lovers. But by playing with machines in this manner, we become a little less deterministic, a little more plant-like, a little stranger, and a little less estranged from our digital spawn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Credits<\/strong><\/span>
\nProgramming: Benjamin Fele, Tim Oblak<\/b> | Robot development & assembly: <\/span>Gregor Krpi\u010d, Erik Krka\u010d, Jo\u017ee Zajc, David Pilipovi\u010d<\/b> | Hands-on assistance: <\/span>Meta Petri\u010d, Bor Jarh<\/b> | Consulting: <\/span>Adriana Knouf<\/b> | Text: <\/span>Agnieszka Wolodzko<\/b> | Narration: <\/span>Bla\u017e \u0160ef<\/b> | Design: <\/span>Miha Tur\u0161i\u010d<\/b> | Photo & video: <\/span>Hana Jo\u0161i\u0107<\/b> | Thanks to: <\/span>Andrej Petri\u010d, Zoran Srdi\u0107-Jane\u017ei\u010d, Waag, MU Hybrid Art House <\/b>|<\/span> Produced by: <\/span>Kersnikova Institute \/ Kapelica Gallery<\/b> within the framework of the <\/span>European ARTificial Intelligence Lab<\/b> | Further development of the project: <\/span>Smart Hybrid Forms<\/b> | Co-funded by: <\/span>Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana – Department of Culture, Creative Industries Fund NL<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"\u0160pela Petric\u030c <\/strong><\/strong>(SI) is a Slovenian new media artist with a background in the natural sciences. Her artistic work combines biomedia practices and performativity to enact strange relations between bodies that reveal the underpinnings of our (bio)technological societies and propose alternatives.
\n
\n<\/span><\/strong>Petric\u030c has received several awards, such as the White Aphroid for outstanding artistic achievement (Slovenia), the Bioart and Design Award (Netherlands), and an <\/span><\/span>Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica (Austria).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

spelapetri\u010d.org<\/span><\/a><\/span>
\nHeader Graphics: “PL\u00b4AI”, photo Hana Josi\u010d \/ Portait photo: Anze Sekelj.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u0160pela Petri\u010d<\/strong> (SI)
PL\u2019AI embraces the notion of a play as an ontological condition of all living bodies, including plants. The act of playing, unlike games, which are limited by clear rules or goals, reflects the curiosity of existence and is therefore at the heart of (self)knowing.<\/p>\n

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