READWRITE
is a cosmic-ray activated robotic artwork installed on
the NEXTDC Data Centre in Malaga, Perth, Western
Australia. It is 10m across and has 24
pneumatically-actuated 1.4m wide diamond-shaped flipping
elements arranged in a grid.
Dance sequences on Readwrite are triggered by
"Muon" particles. Muons are terrestrial Cosmic Rays
generated in the upper atmosphere by interactions with
high-energy particles which originate from distant
supernovae and supermassive black holes in active
galactic nuclei. Readwrite has four Muon
detectors mounted at its corners. When a Cosmic Ray hits
one of the detectors, a wave motion sequence begins from
that point. Other choreographed behaviours occur
depending on the frequency and spatial distribution of
the Muon flux. Readwrite only reacts to the
rarest incoming Muons - those that are travelling
parallel to the Earth’s surface.
Readwrite was installed in January 2014 and has
been in near-constant motion since. It may be the
largest terrestrial automata activated by stimuli of
extra-galactic origin. The Readwrite control
algorithm is a modified version of the code from
Geoffrey’s earlier work Floribots,
and thus retains elements of the emotional modes of that
work (bored, excited, etc.) - which were originally
modelled on the behaviour of the Artist’s sons at
toddler age.The artist notes; “The cosmic conversation Readwrite
is involved in can be seen as reactive
rather than interactive, due to large distances
(millions of light years) extending the feedback time
from its extra-galactic interlocutors beyond the likely
endurance of artwork.” It is the latest in a series of
robotic works by Drake-Brockman that explore the
potential for emergence in relationships with machines.
The Artist explains further in his 2013
TEDx talk.
Other works by Geoffrey Drake-Brockman
include:
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