[Synapse elist] Robotics + Impairment/Augmentation

[Vicki Sowry]

Dear all

ROBOTICS 

Thank you to you all for your valuable comments and discussion about
robotics throughout the past month. In particular, I would like to thank our
guests: Kirsty Boyle, Paul Brown, Shuhei Miyashita, Leonel Moura, Douglas
Repetto and Mari Velonaki.

If you wish to continue this discussion on-list, please be clear in your
subject headings. 

You can of course also access the archives of the lists discussions at:
http://lists.synapse.net.au/mailman/listinfo/elist


IMPAIRMENT & AUGMENTATION

Without further ado, I would like to introduce the May topic and guests.

The use of augmenting technologies for different types of bodies results in
very different things. Issues related to functional impairment and the use
of prostheses to extend ability are not the same as those raised by the use
of prostheses to achieve a type of 'super-functionality' on the one hand, or
to question what bodies are and could be, on the other.

Throughout May the discussion will look at different types of augmentation
practices and tease out the impacts of each on how we think about, inhabit
and use our bodies. Also under investigation will be the way in which
artistic concerns intersect with experiences of impairment and/or
augmentation - from the synaesthesic nature of communication aids, such as
SMARTlab's InterFACES project:
http://www.smartlab.uk.com/2projects/interfaces.htm
to the questions raised by network-driven prostheses, such as Stelarc¹s
exo-skeletons: 
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/exoskeleton/index.html

Would you please make welcome our discussion guests:

LIZBETH GOODMAN is Director of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute and
Magic Gamelab at the University of East London. She established (and is now
Director of) the Trust Project for children in hospital, which uses gaming
and haptics to enhance the physical well-being and learning of those with
limited physical ability. http://www.smartlab.uk.com/1about/director.htm

JU GOSLING, aka ju90, is a London-based artist, writer and activist who
works primarily with digital lens-based media, but also with performance,
text and sound. In 2006-07, she undertook a residency at the UK's National
Institute of Medical Research, where she explored how science affects the
way we perceive ideas of disability and normality, leading her to develop a
scientific model of disability. http://www.ju90.co.uk

BRAD NUNN, an artist, has been exhibiting since the late 1980s. He holds a
PhD in Visual Arts and teaches sculpture and fine art programs at
undergraduate and postgraduate level. In 1993 Brad had a serious brain
haemorrhage, leaving him with physical and neurological deficits. Since
then, his artistic practice has explored and engaged with the prevailing
ideas of the prosthesis in contemporary culture.
http://www.synapse.net.au/people/brad_nunn

STELARC is an Australian performance artist who has presented his work
extensively in Japan, Europe, and the USA. His projects have included the
Third Hand, a Stomach Sculpture and Exoskeleton, a six-legged walking robot.
His present project involves surgically constructing an extra ear on his arm
that will be internet enabled. He is Chair in Performance Art at Brunel
University and a Senior Research Fellow at the MARCS Labs at the University
of Western Sydney. http://www.stelarc.va.com.au


And please, fellow listers, don't be shy in posting your comments to get the
discussion humming!


Regards,
Vicki