Terrain 01

Ulrike Gabriel
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Ulrike Gabriel
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290 × 290

Ulrike Gabriel
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290 × 290

Ulrike Gabriel, Terrain_1, 1994
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400 × 264

Ulrike Gabriel, Terrain, 1994
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400 × 269

A metal ring with 3-meter diameter is placed on the floor, and thirty to forty 20cm long insect like robots are moving in there. The robots start moving when activated as the solar sensors on their backs detect larger quantity of light. The robots are capable of understanding and doing the following three basic actions; moving toward the lighter floor, turning right or left to avoid obstacles in front, and moving backward to avoid congestion. A viewer wears IBVA (sensor for brain waves) while overlooking the whole ring. When the amount of alpha wave increases (the viewer is relaxed and not concerned about judgement), it is converted into voltage, and is set up to raise the level of light over the ring.
TERRAIN holds a theme that even though a movement of each robot is small and simple, when the robots are formed into a group and activated as a whole, there is something to be found out. A human being is a part of the feedback loop in an artificial environment where uncontrollable elements (brain waves and robots in this case) are intentionally brought in. It is a unique style of Gabriel. Each subject does not communicate face to face, but the elements function as agents of a media network, although they are not aware of their missions. The work analyzes a new media communication. A movement which looks to be interacting on the whole, when observed closely, seems to be actually composed of numerous movements of independent automatons.