mind – Artificial Intelligence https://ars.electronica.art/ai/en Ars Electronica Festival 2017 Tue, 28 Jun 2022 13:43:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.6 Robot, Doing Nothing https://ars.electronica.art/ai/en/robot-doing-nothing/ Tue, 08 Aug 2017 11:03:34 +0000 https://ars.electronica.art/ai/?p=3483

Emanuel Gollob (AT), Johannes Braumann (AT)

Robot, Doing Nothing accuses our modern society of being incessantly busy even beyond the confines of everyday life in the workplace. What is now demanded of us—above all due to the proliferation of digital technologies—is our permanent presence, readiness to communicate and receptivity to information. In response, Emanuel Gollob has created a fictitious scenario: the results of studies demonstrate that the efficiency of our society is enhanced by doing nothing.

Based on these studies, Austria’s Ministry of Commerce and Labor decides to remunerate members of the country’s workforce for their inactivity with a minimum wage. To encourage people to get started as professional idlers, robotic installations in public spaces are purveyed to the citizenry, whereby observing the changes the machinery’s form constantly undergoes is meant to facilitate the segue into a meditative state of indolence. In this relaxed frame of mind and body, it is possible to focus on oneself and open up to sweet stasis.

Credits

In collaboration with UFG
Supported by Kuka

Visuals: Christopher Noelle – TOFA
Sound: Michael Schweiger

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