Robotinity – The New RoboLab in Linz, Austria

Credit: AEC

Robotinity the New RoboLab at the Ars Electronica Center Linz, Austria opens March 11, 2011 with a new exhibition called "What Machines Dream Of". The new RoboLab invites visitors to imagine themselves to be archeologists in the distant future and to ask: What would we discover on a dig through the remains of the 21st century, excavating the beginnings of the epoch in which human-machine coexistence was in its infancy? With examples culled from the realms of art, design and science, RoboLab sketches the trajectory of the rise of Robotinity. Highly recommended visit! 

Credit: Infonaut 2010

The new RoboLab gathers together artworks, scientific developments, and visions of the future grouped into four thematic clusters: Environment is populated by robots whose forms and movements take after those of animals with whom humankind has coexisted since time immemorial, and thus alludes to a connection between our newly-acquired technological capabilities and our age-old instincts and behavioral patterns; Medicine focuses on earthshaking developments in the field of medical technology, and illustrates how the organism and the machine are progressively growing together; the LifeStyle area spotlights robotic fashion trends; and RoboLandscape traces the history of robotic design—beginning with plain imitation of certain animals and plants, to the creation of mechanical men capable of walking erect, and culminating in completely new creatures not modeled on any natural precursors.
Ars Electronica Center Linz has been pursuing since 2009: juxtaposition and intermingling of art and science. This course has evoked great interest on the part of the general public, opened up completely new points of view as well as prospects for collaboration, and thus made possible an internationally unique interdisciplinary approach to issues of tremendous importance to the whole world right now and in the days to come.